Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday called for legislation to preserve military veterans’ villages and their cultural heritage.
DPP lawmakers Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) at a joint news conference at the Legislative Yuan urged for more attention to be paid to the preservation of veterans’ villages.
“There were about 900 veterans’ villages in Taiwan, but after 20 years of renovations, many have disappeared,” Liu said. “The Ministry of National Defense has emphasized finances and development, but not preservation and cultural inheritance.”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Although 13 veterans’ villages in 2012 were designated cultural preservation districts by the defense ministry and the Ministry of Culture, there are still many sites that were not listed, such as Sing Village (醒村) in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山), which was were the TV drama series A Touch of Green (一把青) was shot, Liu said.
Chung said some veterans’ family members have been relocated to new apartments and some villages have been protected, but the cultural aspects of these villages are not preserved well enough and that history cannot be recovered if it is lost.
Wu said not all veterans’ villages are as lucky as Heart Village (中興新村) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), which became famous because of TV series The Teenage Psychic (通靈少女).
Heart Village was designated as a cultural preservation district and received about NT$500 million from the Taipei City Government and the culture ministry for renovation and preservation.
“The defense ministry lacks cultural affairs professionals and the culture ministry lacks authority,” Chiu said, adding that if the two ministries cannot work together, the veterans’ villages might be destroyed.
Legislation stipulating that the culture ministry take charge of preserving the cultural heritage of veterans’ villages and set up a fund to provide stable income for the operations has been proposed, the ministers said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS