After the Miaoli County Government razed three kilns that served as the last witness to the county’s once-prosperous pottery industry, preservationists set up a commemorative Web site and pledged to take action against county government officials who backed down from an agreement with the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) to postpone the demolition.
“This is not the time for us to mourn: We must keep fighting,” Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), a Miaoli native and long-time activist for local culture preservation, wrote in a message posted on the site.
Yang said he would write a petition to the Control Yuan, requesting a probe into Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) and potential impeachment.
PHOTO: PENG CHIEN-LI, TAIPEI TIMES
The three kilns were located in Miaoli’s Houlong Township (後龍) and were surrounded by rice fields and farms.
The area had a flourishing industry producing pottery, china, tiles and bricks during the Japanese colonial period.
As the nation’s economy developed, the old-fashioned labor-intensive kilns that once dotted the area became outdated. Eventually they were either closed, demolished or turned into factories that produce pottery with modern technology and equipment.
In 2003, however, the county government said it would build a station for the high-speed rail nearby and drew up an urban development project to turn the surrounding area into a transportation hub and high-tech industrial zone.
After the plans were drawn up, a county cultural heritage assessment commission said the three remaining old-style kilns were not of “enough historic value for preservation” and could be torn down.
Local historians and activists were upset by the decision and formed the Alliance to Rescue the Historic Kilns of Miaoli.
More than 50 civic groups across the country and nearly 600 individuals signed a petition asking the authorities to preserve the kilns.
“Miaoli can only become an attractive place for visitors if we preserve all these places with history and memory,” Den Shui-hui (鄧淑慧), founder of the alliance and owner of a traditional snake-shaped kiln in nearby Jhunan Township (竹南) told the Taipei Times via telephone.
“These kilns were hand-built and each of the bricks used was hand-made,” Den said.
“Many of the bricks actually bear some kind of mark on them and each mark has a story behind it,” Den said.
Den is also a researcher who has authored eight books on kilns in Miaoli.
The activists took their case to the CCA.
Last Tuesday, the council said it would ask the Miaoli County Government to halt the demolition and wait for the results of further negotiations with the activists.
Despite all the efforts, two of the three kilns were torn down on Thursday.
On the same day, the council released a statement expressing regret over the demolition and said it had reached an agreement with the county government to “postpone demolition until after a negotiation meeting on Jan. 14 to spare the remaining bun-shaped kiln.”
The last kiln, however, was torn down on Friday.
“We demand apologies from the CCA and County Commissioner Liu and we demand that the head of the county’s International Culture and Tourism Bureau, Lin Chen-feng [林振豐], step down. We’ll also sue him,” Den said.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash