A descendant of Robert Swinhoe, the first British consul in what was then known as Formosa, on Thursday visited the British Consulate at Takow (打狗英國領事館) in Kaohsiung, hoping to deepen his understanding of his ancestor.
Robert Swinhoe was stationed in Taiwan in July 1861 as the first British vice-consul, and he set up the first British Consular Office in Taiwan in Taiwanfu (modern-day Tainan), the Kaohsiung Bureau of Cultural Affairs said.
Three years later, Britain relocated the vice consulate from Taiwanfu to Takao (modern-day Kaohsiung), after the Port of Kaohsiung was opened.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
The vice consulate was upgraded to a consulate in 1865, with Swinhoe appointed its first consul.
Aside from his official capacities, Swinhoe was also a renowned biologist, introducing the first systematic catalog of Chinese and Taiwanese birds to Asia.
He also discovered more than one-third of birds in Taiwan, including Swinhoe’s pheasant, which is named after him.
Swinhoe was also responsible for certifying that the Formosan macaque was endemic to Taiwan.
Arriving in Taiwan on Thursday, Christopher Swinhoe-Standen visited the old consulate building, which is now a museum, accompanied by officials from the Kaohsiung Bureau of Tourism.
After taking a picture with Swinhoe’s statue on the premises — which showed Swinhoe discovering the macaques and the Odorrana swinhoana, or Swinhoe’s brown frog, which is also endemic to Taiwan — the bureau arranged a boat tour that took Swinhoe-Standen on the route his ancestor took when he cicumnavigated Formosa in 1858.
Learning about his ancestor’s past on the boat ride and taking in Kaohsiung’s excellent scenery was most enjoyable, Swinhoe-Standen said.
He would be sharing the photograph with his 91-year-old mother, Swinhoe-Standen said, adding that he was sure the story would be told for quite a while in the family.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS