The main lantern at this year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival features a 15m-tall giant tree design that symbolizes the nation’s cities and its 23 million people, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
A model of the lantern, titled The Guardian of the Forest — Tree of Light (森生守護-光之樹), was unveiled at the Grand Hotel Taipei.
The main lantern would be displayed at the Houli Horse Ranch and Forest Park Area in Taichung, which is hosting the festival this year, the bureau said, adding that it would be illuminated for the first time at the opening ceremony on Feb. 8.
Photo: CNA
Shows featuring the main lantern would be presented on the hour while the festival is open from Feb. 8 to Feb. 23, the bureau said.
The lantern was designed by artist Lin Shuen-long (林舜龍), who in 2018 had an example of his work on display at the Taichung World Flora Expo, which was also staged in the ranch and forest area, the bureau said.
The lantern is a continuation of his work at the expo, which ended in April last year, with his previous piece called A Seed Fallen From the Sky (從天上掉下來的一顆種子,籽仔), it said.
The seed has grown to a towering tree, it said.
The lantern was built by combining wooden boards and steel, and consists of 22 main structural units, representing the nation’s 22 administrative areas, the bureau said.
It has 368 bud-shaped lanterns and 2,359 heart-shaped leaves, representing the nation’s 368 township administrations and 23.59 million people, it said.
People can enter the main lantern to view the design from the inside, the bureau said.
They can use an interactive device called a “Seed Balloon” that can descend upon verbal command and diffuse fragrances, it added.
The main lantern could be used as a landmark at the ranch and forest area or be turned into a micro-museum after the festival ends, so the benefits of the festival could continue, it said.
As this year is the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese zodiac, small lanterns the bureau is to give to visitors would feature two cartoon rats dressed in the traditional Chinese garments of a bride and a groom, it said.
Designer Lin Chia-wei (林佳葦) said she was inspired by the Chinese folk story about a rat couple wanting to find a groom for their beloved daughter.
“I have the image of a bridegroom printed on one side of the paper and that of a bride on the other side. People can decide whether they want to assemble a bride or a groom lantern,” Lin said.
“The neck and waist of the lantern are movable,” she said.
“When the strings are pulled, the parts move to make the rat bow with its paws clasped, a traditional Lunar New Year’s Day greeting,” she said, adding that the lanterns can be used as puppets.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the ministry has appropriated about NT$210 million (US$7.01 million) to cover training of festival staff, marketing, shuttle buses and rail services.
“We want the 31st Taiwan Lantern Festival to be a model for Taiwan Lantern Festival 2.0, which will set new standards for other cities and counties to follow over the next 30 years,” he said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS