The organizer of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China (ROC) celebrations yesterday expressed regret over reports that it had toned down its slogan for the year-long event.
Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁), who doubles as chief executive of the organizing committee, said he regretted that certain media outlets had interpreted the matter out of context and failed to carefully check the facts.
The Taipei Times and its sister paper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times, yesterday reported that the slogan of the event was toned down to avoid sensitive political issues.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) Centenary Foundation introduced the logo and slogan for the event on Monday. The logo contains eight Chinese characters and the number “100.”
Jerry Fan (范可欽), creator of the slogan, said it originally read “Republic of China, Founded 100 Years (中華民國，建國一百)” but was later changed to “Republic of China, Splendid 100 (中華民國，精彩一百).”
Sheng said the slogan, as well as the name of the organizing committee, celebrates the spirit of the founding of the republic.
He said the foundation held meetings with more than 100 experts, designers and artists to come up with the slogan, but the media quoted somebody who was not a member of the preparatory committee and misled the public into believing that it was an official foundation comment.
“The foundation regrets that the matter was blown out of proportion and has misled the public,” he said.
“Splendid 100” was chosen as a slogan to reflect the rich history of the ROC, which has gone through wars, relocation and transformation over the past century, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday said there was nothing splendid about the nation's centennial anniversary celebrations if one couldn't even call it a country.
“We are spending so much money to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this nation's founding, but the government took out the word 'founding.' I don't know what they are trying to achieve with this,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said.
“It's not a contentious term: Are we going to have to change the names of Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School (建國中學), Taipei City's Jianguo North Road (建國北路) or even national slogans?” DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) asked.
The slogan also sparked online discussions yesterday, with some Internet users describing it as a move to appease China. Other Internet users criticized the design, saying it resembled a number of night market snacks.
“Although it's the 100th anniversary of the nation's founding, the [organizer] took out the characters 'founded' for fear of antagonizing China. It's really sad,” Web user Maerjisi (馬爾濟斯) said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jing-pyng (王金平), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the celebration's preparatory committee, shrugged off the DPP's criticism, saying the Presidential Office decided to adopt the term “splendid” to invite the general public to join the festivities.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS