A grand piano now on display at a Taipei department store is no ordinary instrument — it was damaged, seemingly beyond repair, by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.
Dubbed the “Miracle Piano,” it used to belong to a high school in Fukushima Prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit in the disaster.
It is on display at the Dayeh Takashimaya department store in Tianmu (天母), which has organized events to commemorate both the disaster and the outpouring of donations from Taiwan to Japan in the afterwards. The events run through Sunday.
Photo: CNA
Washed away by the tsunami, the piano was later found caked in mud and seemingly beyond repair.
Piano tuner Hiroshi Endo, who lives in the Fukushima area, decided to try and fix it.
Endo, who is in Taipei along with the piano, said he spent about six months restoring it.
Although the task was so difficult that he was sometimes inclined to give up, Endo said he kept at it because he wanted to do something to encourage survivors of the disaster.
The repaired piano has been seen as “a symbol of hope” for the people rolling up their sleeves to rebuild their homes, he said through an interpreter at a concert at the store on Sunday.
Taiwanese pianist Huang Yu-hsiang (黃裕翔) was invited to play the Miracle Piano, attracting interest from dozens of shoppers.
“I wanted to use music to encourage the affected residents in Japan,” said the blind pianist, who traveled to the hard-hit areas last year to perform.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all