Residents of Taitung County yesterday vowed to take to the streets of Taipei to protest delays in returning cultural artefacts that had been excavated from the Peinan geological site in eastern Taitung County.
They accused the Ministry of Education of "conniving" with National Taiwan University (NTU) to "commandeer" the historic artefacts.
Chanting "returning remains, developing tourism" and "Taida [abbreviation for NTU in Mandarin] bully, Taitung angry," three members of the Taitung Roaring Alliance of Reclaiming Peinan Remains (台東討壺怒吼聯盟), accompanied by lawmakers, yesterday held a press conference in the legislative complex to ask NTU to return the remains to the National Museum of Prehistory in Taitung.
"In addition to mobilizing people from Taitung living in Taipei, we have chartered two airplanes and rented buses to bring in more people from home for the protest," said Lin Yen-hung (林炎煌), convenor of the alliance. "We are mobilizing our people to chastise NTU, not to beg them."
Before they came to Taipei yesterday, alliance members invited six Aboriginal chiefs to preside over a protest meeting and ancestor-worship ceremony in Taitung on Monday to bestow good luck on them for their trip to Taipei.
Chan Cher (
"While the NTU is returning the first batch of remains today [Tuesday,] it should not be too difficult for them to return the rest," Chan said. "However, NTU said that they cannot return everything until 2008 and in four shipments. I find this arrangement unacceptable."
Echoing Chan's opinion, the alliance's deputy chief commander Ho Shew-song (
"Professor Lien Chao-mei (
Lien is an NTU anthropology professor who was in charge of the excavation and has studied the remains since they were discovered in 1980 when the Southern Cross-Island Highway was being built.
Although Lien has said that studying the remains is a time-consuming task, Ho challenged her to present a report of her findings as proof.
Ho Shen-wu (
He said the details of when and how the remains will be returned are negotiable, as long as the anthropology department and the museum can reach an agreement on the matter.
Ho Shen-wu also explained why the remains are being returned in four shipments.
"It is a professional decision made by the department and the museum, taking into account the fact that it takes time, money, manpower and, most important of all, digitization to document and study the remains," he said.
In addition to emphasizing that NTU takes great pains to safeguard cultural assets, Ho Shen-wu called on the alliance to cancel today's protest.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to