Students and netizens have ridiculed National Taichung First Senior High School’s ambitious new gatehouse, saying the NT$9.6 million (US$303,107) structure is “ugly” and looks like it fronts a "hostess bar."
The gatehouse replaces a 40-year-old building that was said to be unsafe.
Apparently inspired by “modernist” aesthetics, the new gatehouse boasts reflective metal surfaces and neon lights, which the school lit up on Saturday evening.
Its first day of use is scheduled to be today.
However, the response of netizens was less than enthusiastic.
A picture of the structure was uploaded to Professional Technology Temple (PTT) — the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board — the same evening.
Most PTT users commenting on the photo criticized the gatehouse as ugly.
One said: “Why the hell does this thing have lights? It is beyond garish.”
Another said: “It looks like the entrance to one of those ‘eight major special establishment categories (八大特種行業),’” a term referring to seedy karaoke bars, saunas, massage parlors and hostess bars that offer illegal sexual services.
“As a former student, I say it is superlatively ugly,” another critical PTT user said.
National Taichung First Senior High School secretary-general Chen Yu-ke (陳余各) was quoted in the Chinese-language Apple Daily as saying that the gatehouse was designed by the Da-Yeh University College of Design and Arts and was approved after “about a dozen” school meetings, adding that the novelty of its appearance and the bright lights might be responsible for its inadvertent impact on the public.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner