Workers on Sept. 20 began restoration work at Tainan’s Tang Te-chang Memorial Park (湯德章紀念公園), with city officials saying they hope the park can fit in better with the surrounding Japanese architecture that dates to the colonial period.
Restoration of the park, which is situated atop the city’s largest traffic circle, is to cost NT$8 million (US$263,713) and take 150 days to complete, at the end of February, the Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau said.
The bureau said the park is a focal point of urban development efforts due to its important position at the confluence of seven major avenues that spread out to every area of the city. In the park’s immediate vicinity are the Land Bank of Taiwan branch, the Hayashi Department Store, Wude Temple — originally established by the Japanese as the Butokuden, a martial arts center — and other examples of period Japanese architecture.
The park at the south slope of Jiou Ling (鷲嶺) — the city’s highest point — was originally the site of the San Jie altar (三界) built during the Qing Dynasty.
In 1907 local residents erected a statue at the site to commemorate Viscount Kodama Gentaro, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army who became the fourth Governor-General of Taiwan.
Walls surrounding the park came down after the site became a traffic circle under new urban planning designs in 1911.
The park and its surrounding traffic circle were officially named Kodama Park in 1916, but were shortly after renamed Taisho Park after the town, then called Taisho Township (大正町), in which it is situated.
Upon the arrival of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to Taiwan following World War II, the park was renamed Min Sheng Green Park (民生綠園).
The park was given its current name in 1997 by then-Tainan mayor George Chang (張燦鍙). Chang erected a bust at the section of the traffic circle leading to Zhongshan Road, where lawyer and democracy advocate Tang Te-chang (湯德章) was shot by soldiers during the 228 Incident in 1947.
A statue of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) stood in the center of the park until 2014, when it was defaced and torn down by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and its supporters.
In December 2015, artists working in the old Japanese Imperial Army barracks found the original head of the Kodama statue that had long ago been torn down and gone missing.
Research by the bureau found that the bust was made in Italy from gypsum and was imported to Taiwan in 1904. In 1905 it was shipped to Tainan and the statue was erected in 1907. The bureau had the bust restored and put away in storage, saying there are no plans to rebuild the entire body of the statue or re-erect it in Tang Te-chang Memorial Park.
This cultural landmark will be a site for exhibiting artwork once the restoration is completed, bureau Division of Cultural Assets Director Lin Chiao-in (林喬彬) said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS