The Taipei Hakka Culture Park yesterday opened to the public following months of construction delays. It will be the permanent home for the annual Taipei Hakka Yimin Festival and other Hakka-related activities.
The 4 hectare Hakka Culture Park, built on the former site of Taipei Children’s Museum of Transportation in the Gongguan area of Taipei City, features a central plaza, delonix plaza, tung flower trail, bike station, farming experience area and eco-pond.
The 24th Taipei Yimin Festival was held in conjunction with the opening ceremony, in which over 3,000 members of the Hakka community from 25 Yimin temples around the nation gathered at the park to celebrate the traditional Hakka ritual that runs until tomorrow.
Photo: Lin Hsiang-mei, Taipei Times
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) headed a delegation of top city officials and councilors that attended the Yimin gods-seating ceremony that officially started the festival.
The festival also featured a “shoulder pole meal-giving” parade that showcased the Hakka spirit of sharing, interactive multimedia exhibits and 12 Hakka Festival shows, demonstrating the vitality of Hakka culture.
The title Yimin (righteous people, 義民) is an honorific title bestowed on the Hakka by the Qing dynasty court for helping government forces to put down an uprising in central Taiwan in the late 1780s.
The uprising resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people in Hsinchu whose bodies were buried at the Sinpu-Fangliao Yimin Temple.
Taipei City Hakka Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Lin Wei-chong (林偉忠) said the park would serve as the main venue for Hakka activities and work to promote Hakka culture.
“Hakka people in Taipei City finally have a home and we will take advantage of the Hakka Culture Park to introduce our culture to more people,” he said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was scheduled to preside over a Yimin god worship ceremony this morning at the park, followed by more parades and traditional Hakka performances.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by