Writer Huang Chun-ming (黃春明) has decided to shut down the Red Brick House cafe and literary salon in Yilan County after the Yilan County Council slashed funds earmarked for subsidizing the cafe in the next fiscal year over allegations that the Yilan County Government was lining Huang’s pockets.
Visiting the cafe for the last time on Monday, before it officially closes tomorrow, Huang said he intended to wait for the county government to settle the issue with the council.
Huang, who published his first novel in 1956 and has since established himself as a major proponent of Taiwan’s “nativist literature” movement, said he hopes to take a rest and continue working on The Season of the Longan (龍眼的季節), a long novel that features himself as the main character.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
Huang said he conceived the idea of the novel five decades ago, adding that it is only half-finished and that he hopes to complete it soon.
He said he plans to stage a closing ceremony tomorrow, including a speech recounting the cafe’s history over the past three years, adding that he hopes to overcome a sense of sadness about the closure by telling jokes and stories.
“I feel grateful for the amount of support I have received over the incident,” he said, adding that the cafe would always have a place in his heart.
Huang said he has received support from friends and colleagues within the arts and culture industries, adding that such people had voiced regrets over the cafe’s closure and called for its preservation.
Writer Liao Yu-hui (廖玉蕙) said that culture should not be subject to political oppression, adding that she, along with National Cheng Chi University professor Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) and 20 other writers, would be attending a closing ceremony at the cafe.
Netizens have started an online petition in hopes of preserving the cafe and enabling Huang to continue running the salon.
The county government said that management of the Red Brick House cafe has been handed over to the Yilan County Cultural Affairs Bureau, adding that the cafe would undergo maintenance, including the development of space for exhibits and displays.
Huang is to be consulted over all maintenance proposals, the county government said, adding that once it had reached a consensus with the county council, it would again approach Huang with a commission offer.
All subsidy funding is to be provided via application to central government subsidies or from fundraising in the private sector, the county government said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS