Due to a lack of public consensus, the Tainan City Government has temporarily suspended plans to restore a statue of Republic of China (ROC) founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) that had been toppled in a local park.
The statue in the city’s Tang Te-chang Memorial Park was toppled by demonstrators protesting authoritarian symbols in February 2014.
The city had planned to restore the statue in the park on Friday, but the decision was met with criticism from advocates of Taiwanese independence.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
National Cheng Kung University Taiwanese literature professor Chiung Wi-vun (蔣為文) on Wednesday last week questioned whether Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had become a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying that Tainan residents should gather at the park on Friday to protest.
DPP Tainan City Councilor Lee Chi-wei (李啟維) said that there is a global trend to move away from erecting statues and busts of people.
The Transitional Justice Commission has also asked local governments to remove statues that are symbols of the KMT authoritarian regime, he said, adding that Tainan has not only not removed them, but is considering restoring such a statue, one that is not even related to the park’s name.
KMT Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) praised the city government’s decision, saying that Sun is not a controversial figure in Taiwan.
“This mayor is different from others and deserves to be praised,” Hsieh said of Huang.
On Friday, Huang said that while the city government must do something with the statue, it has decided to delay restoring the statue until it sees what the public thinks about it.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS