Winners of a banknote design contest held by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) were announced yesterday, with a design titled Formosa — The Beautiful Island featuring indigenous wildlife and Taipei 101 winning the top prize.
Gao, who has advocated the removal of authoritarian symbols from the nation’s currency — including the likenesses of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — hosted an award ceremony at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to announce the winning banknote designs, which were decided through an online poll.
The winning set, designed by Lin Yujun (林煜鈞), also features colorful illustrations of the Mikado pheasant, the Formosan sika deer, the Formosan black bear and the Formosan clouded leopard.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
It garnered 13,428 votes, followed by Taiwan — Bringing Beautiful Lives Together by Wang Yi-chun (王怡君) with 10,358 votes.
Since he proposed the idea of redesigning the nation’s banknotes last year, public opinion on the topic has been divided, with some people criticizing it as “wasteful spending” and provoking “ideological conflicts,” Gao said.
However, Gao said that he believes issuing new banknotes would help consolidate “Taiwanese values” and help the nation break away from its history of dictatorships, adding that he hopes the contest would kindle public interest in the issue.
Separately at a plenary session of the legislature, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) criticized central bank Governor Yang Chin-long’s (楊金龍) remarks earlier this month that the central bank would “act according to the law” if a planned transitional justice promotion committee orders the issuance of new banknotes in the quest for transitional justice.
It is the central bank’s job to decide whether to issue new banknotes, Lin Te-fu said, as he questioned Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) assertion that the committee can override a decision by the central bank on the issue.
The committee is to be created according to the law, so it is only natural for the central bank to comply with the committee’s decisions as long as they are based on public opinion, Lai said.
The task could be carried out in several stages, which would help offset a potentially large cost, he said.
Echoing Lai’s remarks, Gao recommended that the government first replace the least commonly used NT$200 banknotes, which feature a portrait of Chiang.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS