Conservationists and city councilors yesterday presented Taipei City Government officials an application to designate the Four Four South Village (
While the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We'll start the review process of the Four Four South Village (四四南村) right away," said Chang Yun-cheng (張雲程), secretary-general of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs.
Currently, over half of the village has been demolished and only some 70 buildings remain. The city government had originally planned to reduce all the buildings in the village to rubble except for four homes.
DPP city councilors Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Lee Chien-chang (李建昌), as well as some 10 members of the Alliance to Preserve Four Four South Village as a National Relic (四四南村國家古蹟促進聯盟) presented the cultural affairs office with the request at the site yesterday.
During their visit, members of the alliance also took officials on a tour of what remains of the village and inspected old air raid shelters located there.
While city officials said they were supportive of the efforts of the alliance and city councilors to preserve the village, they were not optimistic about its future.
"Although we agree with their argument that it's important to preserve historical and cultural heritage, it takes scientific and professional study to decide whether it's a historic relic worth saving," said Lu Chun-che (
"That's why we plan to launch a survey of Taipei's military compounds and to study those worth preserving."
The bureau has earmarked NT$820,000 for the project, Lu said. The budget has been approved by the city council and the survey is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Lu, however, would not say whether the move by the alliance and city councilors would halt the village's demolition.
"Starting the review process and halting the destruction project are two separate issues. Besides, it may take months before the actual review takes place," he said, adding that the demolition will not be blocked until the review actually takes place.
The core of the problem, Lu said, does not lie in whether or not to designate the place a national relic.
"The key is the controversial public design contest," he said. "And there's nothing we can do about it."
In March 1999, the city's Urban Development Bureau (
While the top three contest winners all favored keeping what remained of the village as a cultural site, the city subsequently decided to make it into a park and to hand over the part of the village that had already been demolished to the nearby Hsinyi Elementary School.
Some of the finalists and evaluation panel judges then launched a series of protests and lobbied against the policy U-turn.
Curtis Smith, a Canadian living in the vicinity who came third in the contest, said that it is important to make the area a historic relic.
"It'll not only be the first relic in the district and the [district's] cultural heart, but will also form a vital landmark for both Chinese and Taiwanese," he said.
Chang Mao-kuei (
"The city sees it as a filthy and shameful eyesore, and there are many interest groups involved," he said.
"On the one hand, the school wants to expand its campus in order to attract more students, on the other hand, the real estate industry prefers to build more high-rise buildings to make big money."
Executive director of the Culture and History Council at the Community Construction Society (社區營造學會), Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), said he has been disappointed with the bureaucracy of the city government over the years.
"There are many ways to solve the problem, but it has chosen to do nothing," he said.
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify