Kaohsiung’s Cijin Center for Preserving Sampan Boats, dedicated to Cijin District’s (旗津) traditional craft, on Dec. 30 invited students from the Municipal Cijin Elementary School to learn shipbuilding, marking the center’s participation in the city’s cultural heritage educational program.
About 150 students from the school participated in a do-it-yourself demonstration of building the wooden boats.
Kaohsiung Bureau of Education Director Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) also attended the event.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
The center, formerly a dormitory compound for naval technicians, was established by National Sun Yat-sen University’s Department of Sociology and received funding from the education department and the Urban Development Bureau, with Kuan playing an important role as the project’s chief promoter.
Kuan said that she encouraged department faculty members and students to get involved in community initiatives and lobbied for the military facility to be put to use.
“The sociology department surprised me with their ability in getting it done so quickly,” Kuan said, adding that the city government and university dean Yang Hung-duen (楊弘敦) were enthusiastic about the program.
“Taiwan is a maritime nation, and its maritime heritage should be a part of education,” Fan said.
“The faculty and students of the sociology department showed extraordinary initiative in preserving and promoting the craft of sampan building through education, and [Kaohsiung] elementary and middle-school principals responsible for cultural education will all come to observe [the work done] here,” Fan said.
An Urban Development Bureau representative said that it hopes the center will become a place of communal and recreational activity in Cijin District.
A Cijin Elementary School drumming team, who won the grand prize at last year’s National Drum Corps Championships, concluded the event by performing an original Taiko drum composition, The Ocean Trilogy.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS