The Taipei Confucian Temple marked the 2,558th anniversary of the birth of Confucius yesterday amid criticism from some city councilors that the temple performed the bayi dance — traditionally performed to pay homage to an emperor — to “fawn” over the presence of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Each year, the temple performs the liuyi dance, a ritual performed by 36 schoolchildren to pay respect to feudal barons and to celebrate Confucius’ birthday. This year, however, it performed the classic eight-row ceremonial dance, known as the bayi dance, which is carried out by 64 schoolchildren.
Taipei City Civil Affairs Department Commissioner Huang Lu Ching-ru (黃呂錦茹) denied that the bayi dance was performed specifically for Ma. She said the department decided to present the dance to celebrate the completion of a restoration project at the temple early last month.
PHOTO: CNA
Yesterday’s ritual, which began at 5am, was presided over by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), with Kung Chuei-chang (孔垂長), the 79th lineal descendant of Confucius, serving as the “sacrificial official” of the ritual.
Ma burned incense, delivered a eulogy and presented an inscribed board in praise of Confucius during the rite, marking the first time since Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in 1968 that a president has attended the ceremonial ritual at the Confucian Temple.
A feast of 193 courses, including dried peach and prune, bamboo shoots and goose, was offered as a sacrifice at the ritual.
Other participants and attendants were requested to stand at attention and were not allowed to sit down, eat, drink or move around freely.
The students participating in the ceremony spent the night at the temple and had to get up at 3am to attend preparations that began at 4am.
The ceremony began at 6am.
Twenty-four minutes into the ceremony, Taipei City Cultural Affairs Department Director Lee Yong-ping (李永萍), who served as the master of ceremonies, became dizzy from the heat and her heavy traditional clothes and was helped to the side.
Around 6:45am, around 20 of the student dancers and musicians, as well as the girl scouts assigned to maintain order, also showed signs of dizziness and had to sit out the rest of the ceremony. One junior high school boy surnamed Lin (林) stumbled and fell on his chin when he walked down a set of stairs, and had to be taken to Mackay Memorial Hospital for care, where it was ascertained that he had only bruised his chin.
Referring to a Confucius saying about propriety and virtue, independent Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) slammed the city government and the Presidential Office for ignoring criticism “regarding the impropriety of holding an imperial ceremony,” which mobilized hundreds of students while ignoring their discomfort in the heat.
This showed insensitivity on the government’s part and was a sign of regressing democracy, she said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
RSS