Taiwan must deal with its fears of China in a “wise and positive way,” Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said in a wide-ranging address to the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday.
She announced new ties with major US cultural organizations, revealed some deeply personal experiences and talked about her hopes for cross-strait relations.
Lung said she met this week with officials at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Her meetings with the directors of the Smithsonian — the US’ national museum complex — were “very exciting” and included discussions on fund-raising, interesting the public in cultural events and mobilizing the private sector.
She is now negotiating for Taiwanese museum administrators to spend time working at the Smithsonian and setting up programs that would involve Taiwanese students studying at US museums.
By way of return, Smithsonian scientists may be invited to Taiwan to study Aboriginal culture and underwater archeology, she said.
Her visit to the US — she leaves later this week for Canada — has even been noted by Beijing.
During a speech in New York, Lung urged China to “let go” and realize that “culture is not a weapon.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Cultural Affairs responded by urging Taiwan to provide full legal protection for Chinese spouses of Taiwanese.
“Marriage is not a weapon, so please let go,” the spokesman said.
Lung said the incident was illustrative of the difficulties in solving cross-strait issues.
“Because of the political problems, we can’t sit down over a cup of tea and discuss things, we have to talk through third parties and it is a bit awkward,” she said, urging Taiwanese to have a more “sympathetic understanding” of China.
Asked if she worried about China having too much influence over Taiwan, Lung said there was a lot of apprehension.
“People on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait must put all their effort and heart into promoting peace — we have to do everything in our reach to prevent war,” she said.
Lung said her parents fled the Communists during the Chinese Civil War and traveled to Taiwan in 1949. She was born in 1952.
She grew up in a fishing village, but never learned to swim and feared the sea because during the Martial Law era she was told that Chinese frogmen with knives clenched between their teeth might land on the beach at night and kill everyone.
Lung recalled that when she was a teenager, her parents received a letter from China that came in a very complicated way via Hong Kong.
“It was from their own son, left behind in 1949 when he was two years old,” she said. “I did not know I had a brother. He had grown up alone, without parents. No correspondence was allowed between Taiwan and China. My brother was 16 and this was the first news from him since my parents fled China. They thought he was dead.”
“They read the letter in a back room and they showed it to me, and then they burned it and never replied. Because if you were caught corresponding with someone in China you could get the death penalty. Those were the times I grew up in,” she said.
Lung said her parents were poor and could not help their son.
Lung said that when she traveled to the US for graduate studies in the mid-1970s, she was “miraculously” able to find her brother’s address and write to him.
He did not know he had a sister.
Lung said when her books were first published in China she arranged for him to receive the royalties.
“There are many people on the other side of the Strait who share our views, and they are our friends and comrades, and they are not our enemies,” she said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS