The president of Baoan Temple in Taipei’s Dalongdong District (大龍峒) has refused a National Cultural Heritage Conservation Award handed out by the Ministry of Culture’s National Cultural Heritage Bureau, saying that the award was too late in coming and only shows that the government is not sincere about protecting the nation’s cultural heritage.
Baoan Temple president Liao Wu-chih (廖武治) said the temple has a history of more than 270 years and has been recognized as a second-class cultural heritage site by the central government, but the temple was nevertheless forced in 1995 to come up with NT$260 million (US$8.5 million) by itself to pay for urgent repairs.
The work was finished in 2002 and the temple received an Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation from UNESCO the very next year, Liao said, adding that for the National Cultural Heritage Conservation Award, which was established in 2009, to finally “remember” the temple’s efforts this year “was too late.”
Photo: Yeh Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
“It is like finally remembering to give a Golden Horse Award to a film that won an Oscar 11 years ago,” Liao said, adding that the government’s award did not seem sincere.
The government lacks comprehensive knowledge of the damage cultural heritage sites suffer and fails to acknowledge that such places need repairs, Liao said, adding that what repairs are done are subcontracted to manufacturers with no knowledge of the delicate workmanship required to restore cultural heritage sites.
Professors and their students often carry out these repairs, Liao said, and as most students lack practical experience, they often miss parts that need repairs, which calls for a change to the overall plan.
Photo: Yeh Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
He added that some teams choose to overlook these parts due to funding issues and suggested that the government establish a professional team for cultural heritage repairs.
Despite a visit on Tuesday from the ministry’s Cultural Heritage Bureau director-general Shih Kuo-lung (施國隆), Liao said that temple representatives would not attend the award ceremony yesterday.
Shih said the award was to affirm the temple’s efforts in preserving intangible cultural assets and was not related to the UNESCO award, adding that the ministry would still send Liao the award.
The repairs and conservation of cultural heritage sites have fallen under the Ministry of the Interior prior to amendments to the Cultural Resources Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) in 2005, Shih said.
As for Liao’s comments that the temple had to come up with its own funding, Shih said that there were restrictions in accordance with the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) if the temple accepted government assistance, adding that the government would “never say no” to aid repairs to cultural heritage sites.
Along with Baoan Temple, New Taipei City’s Luzhou Lee Residence Heritage Maintenance Foundation, Taipei’s Chen Te Hsing Tang, Academia Sinica researcher Tsang Chen-hua (臧振華) and Chiayi County’s Singang Fengtian Temple president He Ta-huang (何達煌) were also nominated for the award.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS