More than 12,000 people gathered in Taipei yesterday to attempt to set a Guinness World Record by writing calligraphy on the first day of the new year.
Braving low temperatures and sharp wind, 12,902 people gathered at the Central Culture Park on Bade Road to attend the city’s fifth Chinese Character Festival.
The festival was initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2005 when he was the city’s mayor and was organized to promote Chinese culture and traditional Chinese characters. In ancient times, it was a tradition that a writing ceremony would take place on the first day of the new year to offer freshly written characters to the gods as prayers for a prosperous year ahead.
Addressing the event yesterday, Ma said Chinese characters were among the oldest writing systems in the world and a valuable asset.
The government has launched a campaign to obtain world heritage status for traditional Chinese characters in a bid to preserve them for the future, Ma said.
Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan and 50 million people are estimated to use them worldwide, Ma said, compared with the 1.3 billion people in China using the simplified form.
However, publications printed in traditional Chinese seemed to be more popular than those printed in simplified Chinese, Ma said.
Ma said it was important to read traditional Chinese because it was a necessary tool to understanding classic Chinese literary works.
It would narrow the gap between both sides of the Taiwan Strait if the Chinese could also read traditional Chinese characters, Ma said.
As one of the 16 guests invited to write auspicious words and usher in the Year of Ox, Ma wrote the character han (漢), or “Chinese.”
It was one of the characters assigned to the guests making up the 16-word couplet, which read: “Genesis of stroke sheds grace on the people, Chinese culture spreads out over four seas.”
They then wrote one more Chinese character on a different piece of paper to sum up their New Year’s wish. Ma and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) wrote an (安), “safety,” Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) wrote he (和), “harmony,” and Taipei City Council Speaker Wu Bi-chu (吳碧珠) wrote chun (春), or “spring.”
On behalf of the participants, four-year-old Cheng Pei-chieh (鄭佩婕) and 93-year-old Chao Chia-li (趙家理) accepted “wisdom brushes” from Ma and a “hero certificate” as a token of gratitude for their attendance. Cheng said she wanted to be a calligrapher when she grows up.
Chen Yeh Tsai-mei (陳葉再妹), who does not read or write, drew circles on a long strip of red paper. She said it was the first time she had written with ink and a brush.
Holding her brush in shaky hands, the 97-year-old said the circles symbolized perfection and she wished everything in the New Year to be perfect and that everybody would make a lot of money.
Chen’s four-year-old great-grandson, Hu Hsiu-yi (胡修禕) seemed to have a good time drawing on the red paper. With his hands covered with black ink and the brush’s end split, Hu was biting the sleeve of his sweater when he said he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. His New Year’s wish was to be happy.
His mother said it was the first time her son had written with ink and brush and that they had returned home from San Jose, California, for the New Year holidays.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS