An announcement on Friday by a National Chengchi University (NCCU) committee that changes to the school’s unpopular politically charged anthem would need to wait until September drew fire from student protesters.
The school was founded in 1927 in Nanjing as the then-Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central School of Party Affairs to train party cadres, which is still reflected in its anthem lyrics. Protesters said that incoming students would refuse to sing the anthem until the lyrics have been changed.
Reflecting the political atmosphere in China at the time of the school’s founding, the lyrics play on themes such as revolution, shared party membership and the Three Principles of the People espoused by Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).
The lyrics have in past years frequently become the subject of discussion among teachers and students who question how they fit into the nation’s trend toward transitional justice.
Student advocate group NCCU Wild Fire last year formed a petition to have the lyrics changed, which the school responded to by forming a committee to discuss the issue.
The committee has released proposed changes including changing “revolution” to “country,” “Three Principles of the People” to “democracy and rule of law,” “our party” to “us,” and “establish the Republic of China” to “protect freedom and human rights.”
At Friday’s meeting the committee said it has collected input on the proposed changes over 62 days, adding that it suggests keeping both versions of the anthem so that students and faculty may sing whichever version they prefer.
Campus reporter Yvonne Wu (吳映璠) cited both students in favor of the changes and those against them.
National Chengchi University public administration alumna Ruth Chen (陳盈如) said she “would feel that the spirit of my home [the school] is gone” if the lyrics were changed.
Others, such as law senior Ting Yu-hsiang (丁友翔), said the anthem is no longer in touch with the school’s spirit.
“A school anthem should not be created to praise a specific political party,” Wu cited Ting as saying.
NCCU Wild Fire head Yang Tzu-hsien (楊子賢) accused the committee of delaying implementation of the revised lyrics.
Younger students in particular are averse to singing the current lyrics, he said, adding that the committee should speed up the changes.
Meanwhile, protests calling for the removal of two Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) statues would also need to await September’s meeting to be resolved, the committee handling that issue said, adding that both issues would be handled at the same time.
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