A memorial service for former first lady Soong Mayling (宋美齡), also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, will be held at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan on Nov. 5, her family said on Monday.
Taiwan's representative office in New York -- the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office -- was expected to issue a press release on details regarding the memorial service yesterday.
Soong's body is being kept at the Franklin E. Campell funeral home and her family is considering choosing a day during this week to open her coffin for public viewing. Meanwhile, her family plans to invite 1,000 people to the funeral.
Soong died at her New York home on Friday, at the age of 105.
Former premier Hau Pei-tsun (
"Her contributions to the ROC can hardly be epitomized by a grand funeral," Hau said.
Many of Soong's relatives, friends, former aides and proteges have flown to New York to pay their respects and assist in funeral arrangements.
Meanwhile, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen has instructed that all national flags will be flown at half-mast on the day of Soong's funeral. Moreover, Chen will issue a posthumous commendation in honor of Soong for her contributions to Taiwan, particularly in the diplomatic field.
When Chen pays his respects, he will present a large national flag to the Soong family that can be draped upon the coffin at her funeral.
As Chen will leave New York for Panama Nov. 2 to attend the Central American country's Nov. 3 centennial celebrations, he will not attend the memorial service.
Soong led a reclusive life at her Manhattan home for much of her later life, after her husband died in 1975.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS