Council for Hakka Affairs Chairman Lee Yung-teh (李永得) yesterday rebutted a newspaper report that said the council was responsible for spending too much money creating Hakka museums.
In an article titled "Hakka museums for mosquitoes" the Chinese-language China Times alleged yesterday that the combined operational costs for the nation's seven Hakka museums had already risen to NT$48 million (US$1.4 million), while combined revenue from ticket sales was only NT$2.9 million as of August.
"The figure does not include construction costs of NT$458 million," the report said.
The report did not clarify the starting date of the calculations.
Lee denied the report during a news conference yesterday.
The report also said that although the museums' operations depend on government subsidies and admission fees, four of the seven museums granted visitors free admission.
"First of all, creating such museums is a decision that falls under local governments' authority. We only helped them financially," Lee said.
Lee added that the council had spent NT$200 million to help create local Hakka museums.
"That's less than NT$30 million per year on average -- that's hardly enough for an ethnic group with 4.4 million people who account for 20 percent of the population," he said.
He added that the value of a museum should not be judged by the revenue it generates.
"If that's what you think, you probably don't understand what `culture' is," Lee said.
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