Cultural workers and students yesterday condemned National Taiwan University (NTU) for demolishing the former residence of late historian Tsao Yung-ho (曹永和) on Wednesday without prior notice to residents.
The university rushed the razing of the first batch of dormitories built in 1928, cultural assets preservation worker Chen Chin-chung (陳勤忠) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that the demolition occurred ahead of National Cultural Heritage Day at the weekend and after Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) recently said that “preserving ancient monuments is more important than building mansions.”
NTU Graduate Student Association academic affairs director Chuang Yung-chu (莊詠竹) said the demolition involved the Nos. 2, 4 and 6 properties on Lane 52 of Wenzhou Street.
Photo: CNA
House No. 6 was Tsao’s former residence, Chuang said.
A widow of a deceased former professor of the university, surnamed Ho (何), resides in house No. 8, a townhouse adjoining Tsao’s former residence and the only surviving residence among the dormitories, she said.
The teardown of Tsao’s former residence might have caused structural damages to her house, she added.
Chuang quoted local residents as saying that they had not received any notice about the demolition until personnel from the university’s General Affairs Office and demolition workers arrived at Ho’s house at about 7am on Wednesday.
The workers told the residents they would raze the neighboring buildings shortly before cutting power to Ho’s house the same day, she quoted the residents as saying.
The university said that residents had been informed of the demolition.
The four houses were culturally significant because their construction marked the beginning of Wenzhou Street, which features numerous old houses and trees, Chen said.
He questioned the city government’s review process of the demolotion project.
None of the 20 members of the Taipei Cultural Assets Review Committee entered Ho’s residence to evaluate the houses’ cultural assets, and in their review meetings, no one addressed that Tsao had lived at house No. 6 for 42 years, he said.
Although the academic and his residence is spiritually interconnected, the committee decided in May that Tsao’s former home “had no value as a cultural asset,” as it had been renovated many times, former NTU Graduate Student Association vice president Kao Cheng-yung (高鉦詠) said.
An administrative appeal of the demolition of Tsao’s former residence has been filed, Chuang said, adding that NTU must propose solutions to preserve cultural assets.
NTU said in a statement yesterday that the demolition notice had been pasted on the doors of the houses before Wednesday.
During an on-site inspection, university personnel had also informed the resident living in house No. 8 about the razing of the three houses and the plan to reinforce the walls between houses Nos. 6 and 8 in mid-July ahead of the demolition, it said.
The resident thanked the university for carefully carrying out the demolition work without affecting her residential rights, the university said, adding that the resident had been fully informed of the project.
Communications about the demolition were made in compliance with Article 15 of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) with residents and cultural assets preservation groups, who had voiced their opinions on the issue multiple times until the committee decided the houses “had no value as cultural assets,” it said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS