The National Taitung Living Art Center is exhibiting items from the early days of Taiwan’s agricultural society.
A recreation center of the Guanshan Township Farmers’ Association in Taitung provided the objects to the art center to teach local residents and travelers about agricultural development from a different perspective.
The Taitung Valley has always been a primary production area for rice and an agricultural center, art center director Lee Chi-chung (李吉崇) said at the opening of the exhibition on Thursday last week.
Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Taipei Times
“We hope tourists and locals will gain a better appreciation of local agriculture, the aesthetics of farm life and how farming brings people together,” he said.
Recreation center Director Peng Yen-fang (彭衍芳) said it was the first time that the items have been lent out.
Many older people who visited the exhibition were moved by the sight of everyday objects that they regularly saw or used as children, Peng said.
Some discussed the objects with other visitors, and explained their use and origin, he added.
“One visitor said that most ox carts in western Taiwan used to have four wheels, but those in Taitung had two, due to the muddy roads of Hualien and Taitung counties,” Peng said.
Another visitor pointed to a large saw and said it was a common sight on farms in Taitung, mainly used for camphor logging in the Guanshan area, Peng said.
The saw was left behind on a farm by loggers and was preserved, Peng said.
Aside from exploring static displays, visitors can also learn to make rice and rice noodles, and explore other uses of rice, Peng said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were