More than 60 social advocacy groups from around the nation gathered at the Rose Historic Site (玫瑰古蹟) in Taipei yesterday to mark the launch of this year’s Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Festival (蔡瑞月舞蹈節), commemorating the site’s rich legacy of social activism with a 24-hour relay of performance arts events and public lectures.
Running the night from yesterday to this afternoon, the event took place at a Japanese wooden structure home to the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute.
Originally due to be demolished in 1994, the building was saved through a landmark conservation campaign in which three dancers were suspended high above the ground by a crane for 24 hours, in protest against what they said was the government’s disregard for cultural heritage.
This year, representatives from various social advocacy groups dangled 15 stories above the ground in four-hour shifts, paying tribute to the historic campaign, with each shift representing social issues from six categories — labor rights; land and housing rights; sovereignty and human rights; gender issues; environmental conservation; and Aboriginal rights.
Dance troupes and activist musicians stirred up the crowd, and there were speeches from prominent social advocates.
The name of the event, “Hanging High Against Oppression,” was chosen because in Mandarin Chinese, the term for “hanging high,” gao diao (高吊) is pronounced the same as “conspicuous (高調),” signifying that the activists wanted their voices to be heard.
“Twenty years ago, one single building faced impending demolition, but today the very foundations of our nation are threatened,” said Tsai Jui-yueh Foundation chairperson Ondine Hsiao (蕭渥廷), who was among the three dancers who participated in the 1994 campaign.
Participants circled the site three times while holding roses in their hands in memory of Tsai Jui-yueh (蔡瑞月), one of the pioneers of modern dance in Taiwan, and pasted photographs of protests and rallies around the nation from over the past two years onto walls surrounding the building.
Several prominent international artists attended the event, including Australian dancer Elizabeth Dalman, Japanese choreographer Orita Katsuko and US dancer Martial Roumain. Taiwanese poet Lee Min-yung (李敏勇) and historian Su Beng (史明) also made guest appearances.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS