A government-led project to preserve local knowledge and provide open access to cultural material officially launched its Web site yesterday to mark this year’s Taiwan Culture Day, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday.
The Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank (https://memory.culture.tw) curates people’s recollections and historic documentation in words, images, artifacts, audiovisual assets and other media to reconstruct Taiwan’s historical eras, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the memories are collected and introduced to the world on the Web site.
The project, initiated in 2017, records the diverse cultures present in Taiwan so that future generations can access the information and materials saved in the memory bank, Vice Minister of Culture Lee Lien-chuan (李連權) said on Friday.
A database of more than 2.7 million items has been amassed from various government agencies and institutions, he added.
For example, the National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine has been collecting records and oral knowledge associated with traditional healing practices and herbal remedies, while an initiative supported by the Taoyuan City government has collected stories from retired veterans by sending a minivan to military dependents’ villages across the city, Lee said.
The platform uses a Creative Commons license, a public copyright license that enables the distribution of otherwise copyrighted work under certain conditions.
Taiwan Culture Day, which is celebrated every year on Oct. 17, commemorates Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), who established the Taiwanese Culture Association on Oct. 17, 1921, setting off a cultural enlightenment movement.
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