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.
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