Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday acknowledged the inappropriateness of painting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emblem on national monuments that are being repaired and promised to discuss the issue with the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA).
The Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs budgeted NT$7 million (US$215,000) to restore the city’s four historical gates earlier this year — the East Gate (also known as Jinfu Men), the South Gate, the Little South Gate and the North Gate.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors said that the department, taking advantage of the restoration work, painted the KMT emblem on the East Gate and planned to paint the party’s emblem on the three other gates.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) criticized the city government yesterday, saying that the move was part of a plan to restore dictatorship and party-state rule.
Hau, a member of the KMT, said the four gates were national monuments and that the city government was authorized by the CCA to maintain the gates.
“It is inappropriate to paint the KMT emblems on the four gates if the patterns were not there originally,” he said.
Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) said the KMT emblems were first painted in 1966 when the KMT modified gates left over from the Qing Dynasty.
The four gates were designated as national monuments in 1998. The Culture Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) stipulates that restoration work on national monuments can not modify the monuments, she said.
“We are simply restoring the four gates and making the monuments the way they were in 1966. The KMT emblems were on the gates, and so it is natural for us to repaint them,” said Lee, who is also a KMT member.
Lee said having KMT emblems on historical monuments could be controversial in modern times and that the department would follow the law and hold public hearings to seek a consensus before changing monuments.
The city government will gather opinions at public hearings and present them to the CCA, which will make a final decision on the issue, she said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
RSS