Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) on Friday performed a traditional worship ceremony to mark the beginning of the annual Hakka Tung Blossom Festival.
Although several of the festival’s large-scale activities have been canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tung trees in Hakka villages have still blossomed beautifully, he said at the ceremony, in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼).
There are more than 70 tung flower paths in Taiwan, in places such as Taoyuan, Taichung, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, he said, inviting people to walk the trails and experience the scenery and nature, while reminding them to avoid crowds and keep a distance of more than 1m from others.
Photo copied by Peng Chien-lee, Taipei Times
Following the worship ceremony, Lee visited the Taiwan Hakka Museum, where the council has organized a public art installation on display until May 24.
The installation, titled “Snow in Summer” (夏雪), was created by artist Yu Wen-fu (游文富), the council said.
Yu used 100,000 pink and white-colored bamboo sticks to “interpret the impressive scene” of tung flowers falling to the ground, it said.
“His work is the most graceful presentation of Hakka culture, land and vigor of life,” it added.
Lee also visited the former residence of the late Hakka composer Tu Min-heng (涂敏恆) in Miaoli’s Dahu Township (大湖).
Lee hopes that local representatives work with Tu’s family to turn the residence into a memorial museum for the composer, the council said.
Although the council has canceled festival-related gatherings amid the pandemic, it has compiled a list of places to view tung flowers at its Web site, http://tung.hakka.gov.tw, where people can search for flower-spotting sites, methods of transportation and see the weather forecast, it said.
Due to the pandemic, a musical organized by the council that had been scheduled to run at the Taiwan Hakka Museum from Saturday to Sunday has been delayed, it said.
A marathon originally scheduled to be held in Hsinchu County on Sunday as part of the festival was also postponed, the festival’s Web site showed.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS