The nation's work in preserving its intangible cultural heritage received a boost yesterday when the Council of Cultural Affairs penned a memorandum of understanding with the Pacific Islands Museums Association to increase exchanges between museums in Taiwan and Oceanic countries.
The director of the National Taiwan History Museum, Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), said that although Taiwan was the root of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic family, it had much to learn from its Pacific counterparts.
Unlike museums in the Pacific islands, where the preservation of intangible culture is highly valued, Taiwan focuses mainly on preserving tangible artifacts, he said.
"Pacific island museums are also very keen to preserve their indigenous cultures. But here we often look outward to introduce foreign cultures, and do not look inward enough to showcase our native culture," Wu said.
Museums on the Pacific Rim are neighborhood-friendly and are closely involved with the community, whereas museums in Taiwan are frequently dissociated from the public, he said.
Pacific Islands Museums Association secretary-general Meredith Blake said she was impressed by the high level of professionalism of Taiwanese museum workers and hoped the memorandum would strengthen working relationships and expand mutual research.
Blake added that the association hoped to take advantage of Taiwan's digital capacity to help the museums better organize their collections.
The association is a regional, multilingual and non-profit organization consisting of more than 20 countries.
The Council of Cultural Affairs and the Pacific Island Museums Association will hold an international symposium on intangible cultural heritage preservation tomorrow at the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature in Tainan City.
More than 13 museum directors and cultural preservation experts from Taiwan and eight Pacific island countries -- Tonga, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Palau and Papua New Guinea -- will contribute to the discussion.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS