A day of Holi festival celebrations featuring Indian food, music and dance performances was staged by the Indian de facto embassy in Taiwan at a New Taipei City park yesterday to mark the arrival of spring.
Speaking at the event opening, India Taipei Association (ITA) Director-General Manharsinh Laxmanbhai Yadav said that the Indian holiday is meant to welcome the season of spring with “colors and joy and happiness.”
The ITA represents Indian interests in Taiwan in the absence of official ties.
Photo: CNA
Given that Holi is also a celebration of diversity, the envoy said the event in New Taipei gives Indians in Taiwan and Taiwanese the opportunity to embrace each other’s cultures, particularly given the increasing number of exchanges between the two sides.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that it was his first-ever Holi experience, adding that he appreciated having the opportunity to take part in the annual celebration.
The festival represents India’s rich and colorful culture, a significant event marking the arrival of spring, he said, adding that it is also an opportunity for Taiwanese to join in the performances and learn more about Indian traditions.
Both countries are vibrant and resilient democracies and they share a strong partnership, Wu said.
Taiwan would carry on welcoming Indian students and professionals to the nation for “whatever purposes,” Wu said.
“We will continue to work with the ITA and the Indian community in Taiwan to further our commercial, educational and cultural exchanges,” he added.
As per Holi tradition, Yadav painted Wu’s face with colors, to mark the start of the event and as a symbol in hope of its success.
The event yesterday at Yonghe District’s Green River Park included a main stage with Indian music and traditional dance performances, as well as Indian food stalls and crafts.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS