The Taoyuan City Government’s restoration of novelist Chung Chao-cheng’s (鍾肇政) former residence has “obliterated the memory” of the family’s home, the novelist’s son Chung Yen-wei (鍾延威) said on Tuesday.
Chung Chao-cheng, 93, widely considered the doyen of Taiwan’s “nativist literature movement” (鄉土文學), penned The Dull Ice Flower (魯冰花), the Turbid Waters Trilogy (濁流三部曲) and the Taiwanese Trilogy (台灣人三部曲), among other classics of Taiwanese literature.
The city’s restoration of the residence, a teachers’ dormitory in Longtan District (龍潭), was meant to commemorate his contribution to Taiwanese literature.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
However, Chung Yen-wei wrote a scathing review of the project after he and his father toured the completed site at the city’s invitation.
“As father and I entered the dormitory complex and walked toward our old dorm, we were dumbstruck by the sight that greeted us,” he wrote in a Facebook post that was later deleted, but not before being quoted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily and the United Daily News.
“I felt an almost physical blow to the chest; was this supposed to be the dorm I lived in?” he wrote. “Stealing a glance at my father, I saw he seemed to have fallen prey to a confusion of gigantic proportions.”
When the city and the Ministry of Culture decided to restore the dormitory at the family’s prompting, officials had conducted a detailed survey of the building’s layout, fixtures and furniture, with which he and his father had helped at many points, Chung Yen-wei said, adding that the contractor had apparently ignored all of the family’s input in the restoration work.
The post sparked a series of responses by city officials, as well as a statement of apology and promises to improve from the Hakka Affairs Council.
Chung Yen-wei later that day deleted the post, saying that certain aspects of his remarks were erroneous.
He said that while he originally claimed that the city government approved the project without evaluating the contractor’s work, the project is awaiting final inspection by city officials and no formal decision has been made.
The Chung family thanked Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) for leading efforts to recognize Chung Chao-cheng’s literary accomplishments, Chung Yen-wei said, adding that he would continue to provide constructive criticism of the project.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
RSS