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Painting of KMT emblems ‘inappropriate,’ Hau says

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.
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