Animal rights advocates yesterday staged a silent protest in Hsinchu County’s Sinpu Township (新埔) against what they called the inhumane treatment of “divine pigs,” usually the center-stage attraction for the Yimin Festival (義民祭).
The protest was launched after a petition by the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan failed to convince the Hsinchu County Government to ban the competition, in which pigs are fattened and skinned for the ritual.
“Our protest is not targeting specific ethnic groups or temples, but the competition itself,” group deputy executive director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
The Yimin Festival, a major Hakka cultural event, has been tarnished by the divine pig competition, which has been continued by multiple temples on the grounds that it is an “integral part of Hakka culture,” the group said, adding that a 2016 Ministry of Culture report found that the competition does not contribute to the festival being an important part of Hakka culture and heritage.
Since as early as 2011, prominent Hakka people — including musician Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥), writer Chung Chao-cheng (鍾肇政) and professor Lee Mao-sheng (李茂生) — have all said that equating the divine pig competition with Hakka culture is “a great affront to the Hakka people.”
Over the past 17 years, the group has called for one particular temple in Sinpu to stop rewarding behavior that abuses animals.
Of the 1,600 temples that used to hold divine pig competitions, only 11 — including the one in Sinpu — have insisted on continuing the tradition, the organization said.
Appeals have been made to the Hakka Affairs Council, the Council of Agriculture and other animal rights-related groups to stop or cancel the divine pig competition altogether, it said.
Religion and local beliefs should not be a shield for animal abuse, it added.
The competition has become for-profit, as people are hiring professionals to fatten their pigs and the professionals have adopted abusive methods to force-feed the pigs, such as tube-feeding, the group said.
Owner and buyers — fixated on the prize money — are completely oblivious to the emotional stress and physical discomfort of the pigs, many of which have difficulty standing or walking due to their obesity, it said.
The very action seeking to honor yiminye (義民爺), the deified figure representing Qing Dynasty militias that died in service of the empire, is disgracing them, it added.
The temples have said that the competitions are launched by the faithful “of their own accord.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition