Breaking with 54 years of tradition, the central government will not send the interior minister to preside over an annual ritual memorializing Koxinga in Tainan, the Ministry of the Interior said, citing the nation’s autonomy and cultural pluralism in its decision.
Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), was a Ming Dynasty loyalist and military commander who in 1662 conquered Taiwan from the Dutch for use as a base of operations against the Qing empire.
The Tainan government in 1946 established the veneration of Koxinga as an official annual event as a sign of support for the political ideology that led him to drive away the Dutch and use Taiwan as a base to “overturn the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.”
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
The former Taiwan Provincial Government Consultative Council in 1962 proposed that the central government endorse the event by dispatching a minister to act as its master of ceremonies. The Executive Yuan in April the following year issued a resolution to that effect and set the date of the event as April 29, with the interior minister serving as the master of ceremonies.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kolas Yotaka on Saturday said she does not oppose members of the Cheng clan holding private religious events in celebration of their ancestor, but that any state endorsement of those rituals would be inappropriate.
“To the Siraya people and other Aborigines, Koxinga’s arrival in Taiwan resulted in the extermination of our communities, and our people were forced to flee as refugees to the mountains, much like Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) massacre of Taiwanese during the 228 Incident,” she said.
Aboriginal groups have repeatedly lobbied the government to address the atrocities Koxinga committed against Taiwan’s Aborigines, and in August last year, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made an official apology.
During a legislative session last month, Yotaka told Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) that he should not officiate the Koxinga ceremony this year.
While Yeh at the time did not indicate whether he was to attend the event, he did say that Taiwan is a pluralistic society and that he would keep in mind that the tradition might offend some people.
The ministry later decided against participating in the event for “reasons of empathy” and filed a request with the Executive Yuan to have local officials take care of the matter instead.
The Executive Yuan has tasked Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) with presiding over this year’s event, which is to take place on Saturday, the interior ministry’s Senior Executive Officer of Civil Affairs Cheng Ying-hung (鄭英弘) said on Saturday, adding that the government had changed its policy to show its respect for opinions from all corners of the nation’s pluralistic society.
“The ministry will play no role whatsoever,” he said, adding that Yeh would not attend the Koxinga event in any capacity and that Lai is to be its master of ceremonies.
Cheng Ying-hung said the Koxinga ritual was overseen by the Tainan City Government in its early days and the central government only began officiating it on the suggestion of the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council.
The change of policy merely changed the rituals back to their original state, Cheng said, and Tainan’s elevation to a special municipality had obviated the need for a central government official to attend.
Moreover, the event had changed from a commemorative ritual to a cultural tourism festival, he said.
The government respects changes in Taiwan’s pluralistic culture, and social change is inevitable, he added.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
RSS