The Green Island Human Rights Art Festival is to be held later this month, showcasing Taiwan’s history under authoritarian rule as well as current human rights issues through the works of young artists.
Titled “Listening to the Overtones of Fissures,” the exhibition’s fourth edition seeks to provide a path to understanding the White Terror period from 1949 to 1992, event head curator Tsai Ming-jiun (蔡明君) said.
The White Terror era refers to the suppression of political dissidents following the 228 Incident, an uprising that was sparked on Feb. 27, 1947, which was brutally suppressed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Pary (KMT) regime. The government subsequently imposed martial law, which was lifted on July 15, 1987.
Photo: CNA
Tsai, who is also an assistant professor of fine arts at Tunghai University in Taichung, said the human rights exhibition, which is to be held on Green Island (綠島), would explore the island’s cultural landscape while touching on human rights issues in Taiwan and other Asian countries.
As the exhibition shows work from 22 groups of artists, the majority of whom are women and under the age of 40, she said she hopes that the exhibition will appeal to more people from younger generations.
Visitors to the exhibition, which starts on Wednesday next week and lasts through Sept. 17 at the Green Island White Terror Memorial Park, are encouraged to reflect upon the relationship between history and the world they live in, she added.
The park was once a prison where thousands of political prisoners were subject to hard labor and ideological re-education from the 1950s until the late 1980s, the National Human Rights Museum said.
This year’s exhibition includes 15 newly commissioned works, including National Award for Arts recipient Wu Ma-li’s (吳瑪俐) installation inspired by a letter written in blood by political prisoner Kao Tsau (高草) before she was executed in 1952 at the age of 26.
Vietnamese conceptual artist Nguyen Phuong Linh and Philippine visual artist Leeroy New have also spent days and weeks on Green Island to create new works for the exhibition.
Nguyen created a magical realism-style video, titled The Monument — The Playground — The Island, about her discoveries on the island, while New’s installation Vessel/Village consists of seven vessels made of bamboo and coastal waste collected locally.
Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) applauded the involvement of young artists in the exhibition, saying that knowledge of the White Terror era in Taiwan should be passed on down the generations in different communities.
He also said he hopes the exhibition will attract tourists who travel to Green Island in summer, developing greater understanding of the White Terror period.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS