While some academics support the planned establishment of a NT$6.4 billion branch of the Gug-genheim Museum in Taichung, others expressed strong objections at a symposium held at Tunghai University yesterday.
Those who object are mostly worried about a cultural invasion and the danger of an American cultural hegemony taking root.
Wu Chin-tao (
Wu said that Taiwan had long been a cultural colony and this time the country was once again accepting the US export of elitist culture.
"But if Taiwan's modern art is not good enough, Guggenheim won't rescue it," Wu said.
Wu also expressed concern about the activities of the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation's other museums and urged the public to carefully consider whether the museum would really benefit the city, as the city government promised it would.
She said that the number of visitors at the foundation's most successful branch, in Bilbao, had been decreasing every year since its opening, and that the New York museum was laying off employees amid deteriorating financial conditions.
Associate professor Li Yeh-cheng (
"Moreover, Taichung is not ready to receive the numerous international and local visitors the museum is expected to bring due to its lack of an international airport, a mass rail system and other infrastructure," Li said.
On the other hand, Ni Tsai-chin (倪再沁), the dean of Tunghai University's Department of Fine Arts, who wrote Taichung Mayor Jason Hu's (胡志強) culture white paper, said that the Guggenheim Foundation should not be forced to shoulder the huge responsibility of promoting and rescuing Taiwan's modern arts.
"Taiwan spends thousands of millions of dollars every year on military purchases and diplomacy, and compared to that the budget for the museum is very small," Ni said.
He said that Taichung should take advantage of the opportunity of opening the museum, and that the public should remember that Bilbao would have been nothing if it had not had a Guggenheim museum.
Shih Chan-an (施長安), a lecturer from Huafan University's Department of Architecture, supported Ni.
He said that the museum would offer Taichung economic and cultural benefits and that people should not worry about the number of visitors the museum would attract.
"The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao had 130,000 visitors in its first year, but Taichung will definitely exceed that number. The number of visitors to the pottery museum in Sanhsia (
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in