Former Kaohsiung County commissioner Yu Chen Yueh-ying (余陳月瑛) died on Sunday night at the age of 87 surrounded by her family.
She passed away at the Kaoshiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Greater Kaohsiung, her family said yesterday.
Yu Chen’s body was sent back to the family’s old residence in Ciaotou yesterday morning.
A member of the “Yu family” that dominated then-Kaohsiung County politics for more than three decades, Yu Chen was the daughter-in-law of Yu Teng-fa (余登發), who was the county’s commissioner from 1960 to 1963.
She began her political career by running for the Taiwan Provincial Council in 1963 and serving in the body for four terms.
She narrowly lost a bid in 1981 to head the now defunct Kaohsiung County government.
She lost to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) adversary Tsai Ming-yao (蔡明耀) by only a few thousand votes.
However, in 1982, she was elected to serve in the Legislative Yuan, where she defeated Tsai in the election for Kaohsiung County magistrate in 1985. She held the position for two terms, until 1993.
Yu Chen was succeeded by her son, Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲), who also headed the county for two four-year terms and served as interior minister from 2002 to 2004 in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
Yu Chen was an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) when the DPP held power.
Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) expressed her condolences over Yu Chen’s death and commended her as a model of women’s participation in public affairs.
Kaohsiung County merged with Kaohsiung City to form a single special municipality on Dec. 25, 2010.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
ANOTHER OPTION: The 13-year-old, whose residency status was revoked for holding a Chinese passport, could still apply for residency on humanitarian grounds, the government said The Executive Yuan has rejected an appeal from a 13-year-old Chinese student surnamed Lu (陸), whose permanent residency was revoked after immigration officers discovered he held a Chinese passport. Lu in December 2023 applied to settle in Taiwan to be with his mother, surnamed Lin (林), who is a Taiwan resident, an appeal decision released this month by the Executive Yuan showed. Lin settled in Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese man in 2003, but the two divorced in 2011, and after marrying a Chinese man, she had Lu, the Executive Yuan’s appeals committee said. Lu’s application was approved in December 2024, and in
RSS