With more than 60 percent of its students being Siraya Aborigines, Donghe Elementary School in Tainan County’s Dongshan Township (東山) was officially renamed Kabasua Elementary School yesterday, after the Siraya name of the village where it’s located.
“The school had always carried the name ‘Kabasua’ since its founding in the Japanese colonial era,” Kabasua Elementary School Parents’ Association chairman Tuan Hung-kun (段洪坤) said after the renaming ceremony. “The school name was changed to ‘Donghe Elementary School’ in 1957 when the government changed the village’s name from Kabasua to Donghe [東河].”
Tuan, who is also head of the Tainan County Alliance of Siraya Communities, initiated the campaign to change the school’s name last year. He spent about a year going door to door in the village and collect signatures for a petition to change the school’s name.
“I’m glad that everyone has been very supportive of the plan, including county government officials,” he said.
School principal Liao Luo-fen (廖螺汾) said that she would make promotion and preservation of the Siraya culture a priority for the school.
Kabasua is the Siraya word for “silk cotton kapok,” a type of tree which was found in the village centuries ago.
Sirayas are Aborigines who lived mostly on the plains of southern Taiwan hundreds of years ago. During the past centuries, many adopted the Han Chinese culture, while others fled to eastern Taiwan.
Kabasua is one of the few villages that still maintains Siraya traditions.
After Tafalong Elementary School in Hualien County, Kabasua Elementary School is the second school to adopt an Aboriginal name and the first to adopt a Siraya name.
Following the renaming ceremony, Donghe village chief Wu Huo-sheng (吳火生) said the villagers would seek to officially change the village name back to Kabasua after the year-end special municipality elections.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS