The Presidential Office must get approval from Taipei's Bureau of Cultural Affairs before the former official residence of Chiang Kai-shek (
The Presidential Office had planned to open the first floor of the residence in Shihlin (
Bureau officials made the remarks yesterday after learning Thursday of the Presidential Office's plans, which were outlined in a written statement.
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang Tsai-lang (黃才郎), deputy director of the bureau, said yesterday that the agency was surprised to learn of the Presidential Office's "unilateral proclamation."
"Although we favor the idea of opening up the place to the public, we don't think it's an appropriate time to do so because we have to respect the wishes and privacy of Madam Chiang," Huang said.
Chiang, who is now 102 years old and has been living on Long Island, New York, since her husband's death in 1975, now only occassionaly visits Taiwan.
The Presidential Office says that the decision to open the residence was made at an Aug. 30 meeting. At the meeting, Eugene Chien (簡又新), deputy secretary-general to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said that Chen had received written permission from Chiang in July to open the residence.
But Huang, who was invited to the meeting to discuss the future preservation and maintenance of the residence, denied that a decision was made at the meeting to open the home.
"One thing I'd like to make clear here is that although we talked about opening the main building to the public on Oct. 31, we failed to come to any conclusion," he said. "The consensus reached during the meeting focused on two things: we all agreed that the main building needs to be open to the public in the future, and that the Presidential Office needs to send the project proposal to the bureau for further examination and approval before the main building is open to the public."
The compound, which is under the management and maintenance of the Presidential Office, was designated by the bureau as the city's 93rd municipal heritage site on April 20 this year.
The bureau plans to make the home into a center for local and global study of the life and times of the Chiangs.
After having been closed to the public for 50 years, the main building was unveiled to the media for the first time in July.
Built in 1950, the two-story building was the second official residence for the Chiangs after they fled to Taiwan from China in 1949 with nationalist forces after conceding defeat to the communists.
Their first official residence was the Tsaoshan Royal Guest House (草山御賓館) on Yangmingshan.
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