President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday wrote down the Chinese characters for “hope” (盼) and “prosperity” (興) at a calligraphy celebration, saying he hoped the nation would enjoy prosperity throughout the year.
Ma, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) participated in the Taipei Chinese Character Festival organized by the Taipei City Government at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
All three showed their skill at calligraphy to welcome the new year.
Ma, who helped establish the festival six years ago during his term as Taipei mayor, stressed the importance of traditional Chinese characters as a unique feature of Chinese culture and said he hoped the characters would be listed by UNESCO as part of the world heritage.
“I’ve made efforts over the years to promote traditional Chinese characters ... Although mainland China uses simplified Chinese characters, I believe traditional Chinese characters are the right tool to pass on Chinese culture,” he said.
Hau wrote down the character for “safe” (安) at the event and said he wished for Taipei residents to have good health and safety throughout the new year.
Several thousand people attended the festival, where they wrote down their new year wishes in the center plaza of the hall.
The event also attracted some foreigners.
Mark Stocker, who has been living in Taiwan for 17 years, said he enjoyed learning traditional Chinese characters, and writing down traditional characters with a calligraphy brush was a new experience.
“I think traditional Chinese characters document the Chinese culture and help people who learn Chinese understand history,” he said.
Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs invited people to participate in the festival, which runs through Jan. 11 and includes an exhibition on Chinese characters in the exhibition rooms at the hall.
For more information, visit the festival’s Web site at chinese-character-festival.org.tw or call (02) 2598-7557 ext. 117.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS