The Tourism Bureau yesterday unveiled the main lantern and handheld lantern that will be on display at the Taiwan Lantern Festival to be held in Ilan next month.
The next lunar year will be the year of the Ox in the Chinese Zodiac. Thus the main lantern design is based on the image of a Taiwan Water Buffalo (台灣水牛).
The golden water buffalo is about 14m high and stands on a 4.3m high pedestal. The entire lantern is placed on a platform surrounded by rice paddies and a water mill.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
The bureau said the image of the water buffalo plowing the land symbolizes the down-to-earth and hard-working Taiwanese. The rice paddies symbolize a good harvest and prosperity, while the water mill symbolizes a turning point for change.
The designers have put engines on the joints of the water buffalo to portray the image of an energized Taiwan ready to move. Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) is in charge of lighting the main lantern.
The handheld lantern is called starlight ox (星光牛). The ox, which features golden horns and hooves, is lit by a small light-emitting diode bulb inside its body.
Bureau director-general Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said 130,000 hand-held lanterns will be distributed at the festival.
The festival will open on Feb. 9 and end on Feb. 22 and will be the first lantern festival to be held on the East Coast.
As the festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary, the bureau will host an activity encouraging collectors of the handheld lanterns to come and show their collections. Those with more than six different handheld lanterns will be eligible for a prize draw, the top prize being a foldable bike.
Lai responded to recent speculation by saying the bureau will not suspend the festival. She said the bureau has promoted the festival for 20 years and that it is one of the most important festivals in the world.
In related news, Association of Taiwan Tour Souvenir chairman Lin Chien-jung (林建榮) said Pouchong Tea (包種茶), manufactured in Pinglin Township (坪林) in Ilan County — which on Monday won the Golden Award as the best tourist souvenir — would be collectively marketed under the brand of “Taiwan Best 100” and will be presented at the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
Silver Award-winner Dragonfly Glazed Beads — which became popular after being featured in the hit film Cape No.7 (海角七號) — and Special Award-winner Chiate Pineapple Cakes (佳德鳳梨酥) will also be marketed under the brand and presented at the lantern festival.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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
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
RSS