Taiwan on Wednesday opened a culture division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Prague, which Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said is of special significance to international exchanges.
Shih attended a plaque-unveiling ceremony for the division — the first of its kind in Central Europe — in Prague on his first trip abroad as a minister.
“Taiwanese culture is the business card that represents Taiwan,” the Ministry of Culture quoted him as saying in a statement. “Now I am handing this business card to my Czech friends in the hope that the people of Taiwan and the Czech Republic can better understand each other through art and culture.”
Photo: CNA
The Czech Republic has a rich cultural and historical heritage and outstanding achievements in the fields of painting, sculpture, literature and music, while Taiwan has developed its own unique and diverse culture due to its location and history, Shih said.
The two nations share respect for diverse cultures — “cultural exchanges embody democracy,” he said.
Shih told the Central News Agency that the division has been in operation since the beginning of this year, and is serving as a bridge between Taiwan and Central Europe, a region Taiwan rarely interacted with in the past.
The Czech Republic is one of the most friendly nations to Taiwan and a good reference point for the nation to look up to while expanding on the global stage, he added.
Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil said that launching the division is “the right thing to do,” the ministry said.
The division showed the cultural depth of the two nations, Vystrcil said, adding that the friendship between Taiwan and the Czech Republic “will surely become stronger and better” as they share the values of democracy, freedom and cultural diversity.
Vystrcil told the Central News Agency that the two sides could organize cultural festivals and the nation’s national museums could hold joint exhibitions.
Representative to the Czech Republic Ke Liang-ruey (柯良叡) said that the establishment of the division is “another milestone” for relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic, following the direct flights between Taipei and Prague launched in July.
After the ceremony, Vystrcil led Shih on a tour of the Wallenstein Palace, which houses the Czech Senate, introducing its history, operations and political system.
The two later enjoyed Czech beers at a local bar.
Shih also attended a performance by the Taiwanese group Diabolo Dance Theatre.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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
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
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas