National Taiwan University (NTU), which is to name a campus square after White Terror victim Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), is holding a competition to choose a design for the square.
The NTU Campus Planning Committee said that the 1,107m2 space, which will be called “Dr Chen Wen-chen Incident Memorial Square” (陳文成事件紀念廣場), is between the 1st Student Activity Center and the Department of Library and Information Science building, where the body of Chen, who was an NTU alumnus and a democracy activist, was found in 1981.
The naming of the square is aimed at increasing public awareness of Chen’s death and his contribution to Taiwan’s democratic development, the committee said.
Student representatives and teachers brought up the idea of establishing a memorial square on campus in 2013, which was approved by an university affairs meeting in 2014, said committee convener Huang Liling (黃麗玲), who is also an associate professor at the university’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning.
The committee said it is calling for projects to redesign the space in a way that would attract students and the public to visit and learn more about Chen.
Participants can submit their designs between April 30 and May 30, the committee said, adding that the winning design would be given a NT$100,000 cash prize.
The name of the square and Chen’s accomplishments must be displayed in the square and its theme should express the spirit of “courage and freedom,” the committee said.
Committe member Wu Hsin-Yu (吳鑫餘) said that the White Rose Monument in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Jan Palach Square in Prague’s Old Town are examples of such squares, adding that the committee plans to create a public space that signifies the role the incident played in the development of Taiwan’s democracy.
NTU Student Council academic officer Weng Yu-lin (翁毓聆) said it will be the first democracy memorial square on campus and would also be a representation of transitional justice.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS