American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Sandra Oudkirk yesterday took part in a traditional Taiwanese ritual to commemorate the annual Ghost Month.
Oudkirk, the de facto American ambassador to Taiwan, and AIT Deputy Director Jeremy Cornforth took part in a Zhongyuan Pudu ritual on the AIT’s Taipei premises, making offerings of food and burning incense to honor those who have passed on, a post on the AIT’s Facebook page said.
The AIT table offerings included fruits, various dishes, soft drinks, beer and flowers, the Facebook page showed.
Photo courtesy of the AIT’s Facebook page
Oudkirk and Cornforth, who both began their posts last month, also offered the spirits joss paper representing New Taiwan and US dollars. This was their first time observing a traditional Ghost Month ritual in Taiwan.
Other employees at AIT also took part in the ceremony to pay homage to spirits in the area.
In Taiwanese culture, Ghost Month is the seventh month on the lunar calendar and is marked this year from Aug. 8 to Sept. 6, with the Ghost Festival observed yesterday.
According to local folklore, the gates of the underworld open during Ghost Month, and spirits are released to visit their families and loved ones, or just roam around.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS