The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it has not decided where and when to exhibit the main Taiwan Lantern Festival lantern after the government canceled the festival last month due to an increase in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.
Despite the last-minute cancelation, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that artists should be allowed to finish building the festival’s main lantern and two smaller lanterns, so that they can be exhibited elsewhere.
The ministry made the statement after the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) ran an exclusive report saying that the main lantern, titled Riding the Winds While Chasing the Lights, would be placed near the High-Speed Rail station in Hsinchu County, rather than in Hsinchu City, which was to host the festival.
However, the ministry said that it has not chosen a location or when to exhibit the lantern.
The Tourism Bureau had originally planned to have the main lantern exhibited in one of its 13 national scenic areas, the ministry said.
“Considering the lantern was designed using Hsinchu City’s image as a windy city, we hope that visitors will see the connection between the main lantern and the city. As such, the bureau was asked to choose an exhibition venue that is not too far from the city and would allow it to manage the crowd for disease-prevention purposes,” the ministry said. “We are still evaluating several venues to exhibit the main lantern, including the High-Speed Rail station in Hsinchu.”
In other news, the Tourism Bureau unveiled the designs of small lanterns that were originally to be distributed to visitors at the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
As this is the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, following the Year of the Rat, the small lanterns feature a colorful milk cow with a pika on its back, it said.
Aside from holding the lanterns, people could wear them as horn hats as well, the bureau said, adding that it would announce locations where lanterns would be given away once different lantern exhibition venues are finalized.
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