A private foundation has offered a top prize of NT$1.2 million (US$39,600) for a historical fiction competition that encourages local writers to write about people and historical events in Taiwanese history.
The New Taiwan Peace Foundation, founded by Taiwan independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), announced the competition format yesterday at a press conference.
Koo, 89, said the competition would pay back the country he loves and that it is important “for the current generation to understand where their ancestors came from.”
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The foundation, established with Koo’s donation of US$100 million — about half of his assets — is to begin accepting entries in September next year and the winner is scheduled to be announced in December next year.
Known for his outspokenness, Koo also addressed several political issues yesterday, including the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) election of a new chair and the next presidential election.
Koo said DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) were all unqualified for the DPP chairmanship, but if he had to make a choice, he would pick Su over the others.
The DPP election is scheduled to be held in May.
Koo reiterated his theory that Taiwan is not mature enough to have a female president and said that was why he would not support Tsai’s presidential bid in 2012.
In the presidential election in 2016, he said the DPP should be represented by the younger generation, such as Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) or DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who will be running in the Greater Taichung mayoral race in November.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
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