A Chinese-style wooden sailboat will soon return to Taiwan for the first time since it made a historic trans-Pacific journey to the US 57 years ago, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) said yesterday.
The boat, Free China (自由中國), which was built and launched in Keelung in 1890, was found abandoned in San Francisco in 2009. Taiwanese boat enthusiasts wrote to then--premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), telling him that the vessel was about to be dismantled, Chiu said.
Free China left Keelung Port in April 1955 to take part in a sailing competition in the US, but missed the race because of its lack of modern equipment and storms along the way. It arrived in San Francisco in August that year.
Photo courtesy of Chen Ling-li
The boat was donated to a US museum after the journey, but later ended up in a private shipyard, where it was found in 2009.
The Taiwanese government’s decision to ship the vessel back was announced in November last year by Chiu, who was part of a team sent by Liu to assess the boat’s value as a cultural asset.
Chiu said ownership of the boat has been transferred to the government, and the estimated NT$7 million (US$237,360) needed to bring the vessel back has been secured.
Apart from its historical value, the vessel can help shed more light on ancient boat-building techniques and can be of benefit to archeological studies on shipwrecks, Chiu said.
Free China is set to return to Taiwan this year once the details have been sorted out, Chiu said, adding that he hopes it can be unveiled on the World Ocean Day on June 8, or the Taiwan’s Maritime Day on July 11.
The boat will be on display outdoors at the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in Keelung, Chiu said.
More money will be needed to fund an indoor display in order to protect the boat from damage by natural elements, he said.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS