A sculptor has carved a bust of Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) to thank him for his devotion to preventing COVID-19’s spread in Taiwan.
Chen has worked tirelessly without respite on the front line in the fight to contain the disease and safeguard Taiwan, 60-year-old sculptor Huang Tien-fu (黃添富) said, adding that it took him a week to make the 27cm bust.
Chen’s commitment to his task is evident by his daily news conferences at the Central Epidemic Command Center to update the public about the disease’s spread, including reports on individual infections, Huang said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong Taipei Times
Chen has never been absent from these news conferences or sessions at the Legislative Yuan to update lawmakers, Huang said, adding that he was moved by Chen’s dedication and wanted to cheer him on.
“The minister has been doing a very good job. The public is aware of this,” Huang said.
Chen is effective and calm, and he is good at articulating things, Huang said, adding that Chen always answers people’s questions.
Huang, who has over the past 30 years dedicated himself to sculpting Buddhist statues, said that he had not made a bust or statute of a human likeness in years.
However, the underlying skills remain the same, Huang said, adding that he was able to craft Chen’s likeness from pictures he found online.
After finishing the bust, he shared it online, where the response has been positive, Huang said, adding that people told him it looked life-like and was an accurate rendering of Chen.
“I started off just wanting to do this to express my feelings, and I had no idea I would get this encouragement,” Huang said. “I am truly honored. It seems that it was the right thing to do.”
The most challenging part of sculpting a bust is the sides of the face, while accurately depicting the nose, eyelid placement, cheek width and position of the ears are also difficult, he said.
“Without looking at a person in real life, you do not know what the back of their head or sides of the face look like,” Huang said, adding that he asked a reporter friend to photograph the sides of Chen’s face during a news conference.
As he initially hoped to finish the bust within a week, Huang said he made it with a less time-consuming process using fiber-reinforced plastic, but added that he plans to recreate the work with copper.
He plans to send the bust to Chen, Huang said, adding that he also plans to sculpt President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
The government yesterday donated US$200,000 to the Philippines to support post-earthquake relief and recovery efforts, following a powerful magnitude 6.9 quake that struck Cebu Province late last month, killing at least 72 people and injuring 559 others. The donation was presented earlier yesterday by Representative to the Philippines Wallace Chow (周民淦) to Cherbett Maralit, deputy resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, at Taiwan’s representative office in Manila. In his remarks, Chow expressed concern for those affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck the central Philippines on the night of Sept. 30. "We sincerely hope for the earliest possible
RSS