A proposal by National Taiwan University’s (NTU) student council to name a plaza on campus after late NTU alumnus and democracy activist Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) can now be considered, after a school affairs meeting yesterday unanimously approved a principle on naming public spaces within the university.
The plaza is between the university’s Graduate Institute of Library and Information Science and the first student activity center.
Chen, who graduated from the university’s department of mathematics, studied in the US and became an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s department of statistics.
A supporter of Taiwan’s democracy movement, he was found dead on an NTU lawn on July 2, 1981, after he was questioned by the then-Taiwan Garrison Command one day after returning to the nation to visit his family.
At the time, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government said Chen had committed suicide. However, an autopsy performed by a US forensics expert disputed this conclusion. The cause of Chen’s death remains unknown, though many allege that his death was a consequence of political oppression.
In June this year, NTU student council leader Lee Hsin-wen (李心文) said at a school affairs meeting that “Chen was politically oppressed” and that his body being found on campus was a tragedy of an autocratic era, adding that the transition to democracy called for a reflection on the past.
The naming of the plaza after “the man who fought for Taiwan’s democracy and was sacrificed by political oppression” would help the university’s students and faculty understand NTU history, as well as strengthen democracy and the implementation of transitional justice, Lee said.
Lee’s proposal was supported by most students and faculty members, but NTU Dean Yang Pan-chih (楊泮池) said in June that the naming of public spaces should have more guideline rules to avoid school affair councils being burdened with all naming issues.
The principle passed yesterday says that the naming of all open spaces should take into consideration aspects such as historical commemoration; names from nature, humanities or a particular landscape; the characteristics of the location; and the spirit behind the location’s original design.
In terms of the principle, no plaque would be erected bearing the name of a location, but if specific historical significance of a location must be made known to visitors by putting up a plaque, it must not stand out too much from the surrounding scenery.
Yang said the naming of the plaza should follow the principle guidelines.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS