Almost two years after the dance studio of Taiwanese dance legend Tsai Jui-yueh (
However, the job won't begin until March of next year.
The Japanese style wooden building burned down on Oct. 26, 1999, four days after it was de-signated as a municipal historic relic.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
After the fire, Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pledged that both an investigation into the blaze and the reconstruction of the site would be completed within a month. However, no repairs or arrests have as yet been made.
Inspecting the China Dance Club studio located on Chungshan North Road, Section 2, Lung Ying-tai (
"What's so amazing about the place is not the building itself, but its role in Taiwan's modern dance history," Lung said.
Lung also gave her reasons for why the reconstruction project has taken so long to come about.
"We are required by law to follow certain procedures because it's a historic relic," she said. "It might seem that we haven't been doing anything regarding the repairs, but the truth is that we've been working on it day in and day out."
Six months after the fire, the city commissioned Su Ming-hsiu (
After an eight-month study was completed in December last year, the bureau entrusted the Fu Hang-jen Architect and Associates to design and eventually rebuild the structure.
The bureau has proposed NT$21 million for the reconstruction project over the next financial year and is waiting for the city council to review the proposal.
"Hopefully, the council will approve the budget as proposed. If everything goes well, we hope to start reconstruction in March next year and complete it by the end of the year," Lung said.
Briefing Lung about the project yesterday, Fu said that the first floor will have a cafe, a gift shop, indoor and outdoor performance areas and a static display room.
On the second floor, there will be a library and a research room. The first and second floors of the basement will house practice rooms and a community culture center.
"Our design concept is to blend the old and new, people and nature together and make this place the most beautiful green space in the concrete jungle," Fu said.
Tsai, who is dubbed Taiwan's mother of modern dance, began her dancing and teaching career in Taiwan in 1946 at the age of 25.
The city had originally planned to demolish the dance studio in 1994, but a conservation campaign launched by local artists secured its designation as a municipal historic site in 1999.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat