Film director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) shaved his head to show support for residents of the Sanying Aboriginal Community (三鶯部落) who staged a demonstration yesterday to protest a Taipei County Government plan to demolish the community.
“Aborigines have been living on this island long before the migrants from China moved here,” Hou said after shaving his head on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office as Sanying residents and supporters protested. “The Aboriginal way of life should be respected.”
Besides Hou, Aboriginal actors Ma Chih-hsiang (馬志翔) and Suming, as well as writer Chu Tien-hsin (朱天心) attended the protest.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“It took Sanying inhabitants a lot of effort to rebuild their homes after they were destroyed, but as soon as next Monday, the community might be destroyed again,” Sanying Self-Help Group spokesman Chiang Yi-hao (江一豪) told reporters and demonstrators.
Sanying is located on a bank of the Dahan River (大漢溪) in Taipei County near the Sanying Bridge (三鶯大橋), which connects Sansia (三峽) and Yingge (鶯歌) townships.
Inhabitants in the community are mostly Amis Aborigines from Hualien and Taitung counties, working in Taipei as construction workers. They could not afford housing in the city, so they built their homes on a piece of abandoned land along the river around 20 years ago.
Saying that the area was classified as a “flood zone” that could not be inhabited, the county government has torn down the community several times — most recently in February — but residents rebuild their homes each time.
Although the county government has built an apartment complex to house Sanying residents, problems remain — some of the residents refuse to move, some cannot afford the rent, while others are nots qualified to move into the apartment complex since they did not live in Sanying when the government took a census in 1994.
As successive rounds of talks between residents and the government failed to generate a consensus, the county government posted a notice on Monday warning it would evict them within seven days, adding that they would be removed with force.
Lee Tsung-kwei (李宗桂), county Information Office director-general, appeared at the demonstration, explaining to reporters that the county government was acting according to law, and was trying hard to accommodate Sanying residents.
“This area has been classified as a flood zone and no one has been allowed to live in flood zones since the Water Conservation Law [水利法] came into effect in 1994,” Lee said. “We understand that many people have lived there since long ago, so we’ve built an apartment complex to accommodate them.”
When asked how the county government would help those who could not afford the rent, Lee said he would have to find out, adding “perhaps they can get help from the Social Welfare Bureau.”
Following a meeting held later yesterday, Lee said the county government has decided to postpon the decision on whether or to enforce the eviction till after the Lunar New Year holidays. This year’s Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 26.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
RSS