The Sports Administration on Wednesday said it would start creating digital records of traditional martial arts indigenous to the nation as the pilot of a digital archive project to document the nation’s sports culture.
The pilot project would begin this year, the agency told a news conference in front the Red House Theater (紅樓劇場) in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area.
A martial arts group led by 91-year-old practitioner Lee Lo-tsun (李鑼村) demonstrated traditional hand-to-hand and armed combat techniques at the conference.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
The agency said it plans to interview and film practitioners like Lee for the project.
A martial art known as Qikan (七崁) — the old Hakka name of Siluo Township (西螺) in Yunlin County — is an indigenous fighting style with nearly 200 years of history, Siluo Martial Arts Foundation president Lee Ming-che (李明哲) said.
However, Qikan masters are aging and local residents are concerned that the martial art will be forgotten, Lee said.
He said the concerns prompted him to ask the agency to preserve records of the martial art in a digital archive, he added.
Historically used by local residents for self-defense and warfare, Qikan includes armed and unarmed fighting styles, according to the foundation’s Web site.
Qikan practitioners use twin short swords, sword and shield, staff, spear or glaive, among other weapons, the Web site said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said he is happy to see children among Qikan practitioners.
“Martial arts would be useful at the Legislative Yuan. Maybe the masters can teach me a few moves,” Chiang said.
Sports Administration Director-General Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the agency would also digitize other materials related to the nation’s sports history.
Materials collected from sports academies, professional leagues, Olympic teams and the public would be digitized along with information on traditional sports, he said.
More than 100 people would be interviewed by researchers, and records and materials would be archived in a database for public and academic use, Lin said.
People who have books, memorabilia, photographs, newspaper clippings, video recordings, manuscripts or other relevant material, or know people who can be interviewed for the project, can contact National Taiwan University of Arts, he said.
Additional reporting by Huang Shu-li
VOTERS’ CHOICE: The DPP’s Chen and independent candidate Huang conceded defeat before 7:20pm, with Chiang pledging to remain humble and do his best Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday won the Taipei mayoral election, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate defeating the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) pick, former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), and former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), an independent. After polling stations closed at 4pm, the Taipei Election Commission issued a preliminary estimate that voter turnout in the city was about 64 percent, slightly lower than in 2018. Chiang, 43, is to be the youngest Taipei mayor ever, with the KMT regaining the capital after eight years. Chen had an exceptionally high national approval rating when he was head
A naval landing craft on Thursday sank near Kinmen County after wet weather and rough seas flooded its cabin, the Naval Fleet Command said. The vessel, called Landing Craft Mechanized 1326, had completed transport and replenishment missions in the county and was returning to Taiwan proper when surging waves flooded the cabin, the navy said in a statement. The craft’s five crew members tried to bail out the water to no avail, the Navy said. The landing craft eventually sank off Kinmen’s Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) at 5:18pm, although all crew members rescued, it said, adding that the precise cause of the sinking
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Chiang was effective in running a cautious campaign to avoid making mistakes, waiting for other candidates to slip up, an analyst said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei Mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) stood out among his rivals due to his energy, his die-hard supporters and his relative openness to discuss issues such as same-sex marriage, a political analyst said yesterday. Chiang’s campaign was also aided by his family’s background in politics, which helped him garner greater support in Taipei where there is a large KMT base, said the analyst, who chose to remain anonymous. “Chiang is also not a typical KMT member when it comes to certain issues, such as gay marriage, and his more open stance widened his support base — particularly among young
TOURIST HOTSPOT: The air charter services would drastically cut travel time to the world-renowned beach with its service to Caticlan, instead of Kalibo Royal Air Philippines is to launch next month direct flights between Taiwan and the Philippine city of Caticlan, a closer entry point to tourist hotspot Boracay. The airline will initially offer six charter flights between Dec. 26 and Jan. 15, with the flight frequency increasing to one per day during the Lunar New Year and winter holidays from Jan. 19 to Feb. 8, it announced at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The charter flight services will drastically cut travel time to Boracay to about two hours and 45 minutes. Before the new route is launched, travelers from Taiwan who
RSS