The Tainan City Government yesterday unveiled details of this year’s Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成�?ulture Festival to celebrate the 347th anniversary of the Chinese general’s successful campaign to drive the Dutch out of Taiwan.
Better known in the West by the name “Koxinga” (國姓爺), the Ming loyalist established the Kingdom of Tungning (東寧國) in Taiwan as his base to overthrow the Qing dynasty.
While Koxinga has often been touted as evidence of the historical link between Taiwan and China, Taiwanese historian Lee Shiao-feng (李筱峰) has said that documents from the Koxinga period contradict the claim by China that Taiwan has been part of Chinese territory since ancient times.
The Tainan City Government, which is organizing the festival for the eighth consecutive year, named this year’s festival “The Return of the King” to celebrate the recent relocation of Koxinga’s golden statue to the 300-year-old Koxinga’s shrine, the earliest shrine built to worship Cheng in Taiwan.
The statue had been lost for about 40 years before it was found earlier this year.
“This year’s Koxinga cultural festival centers on traditional and educational activities,” Tainan City mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (�?]) said.
Tourists will be able to experience local culture through a series of activities separated into three categories: cuisine, performance and exhibitions.
Performers will include groups from Kinmen, the Chinese cities of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen as well as some from the Japanese city of Hirado, Hsu said.
The nine-day festival will run through Sunday.
Hsu Keng-hsiu (�?�), director-general of the city government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, said that the main task of this year’s festival was to invite performance groups for cultural exchanges.
Plans include a southern Fujian folk art exhibition and a conference to discuss ancient art and literature.
“The festival is not just about religious worship, but also about the combination of cultures, which is a major feature of Tainan City,” Hsu Keng-hsiu said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
RSS