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.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS