The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation on Thursday launched a fundraising campaign to relocate the Ama Museum.
The museum, in Taipei’s Datong District (大同), opened in 2016, the foundation said in a statement on Friday.
However, due to high rental fees and personnel costs, the foundation said it would be closing the museum, which is dedicated to Taiwan’s “comfort women,” on Nov. 10.
Since the beginning of this year, the museum has generated revenue of NT$2,747,078 (US$94,795) against an expenditure of NT$5,578,971, resulting in a loss of nearly NT$3 million, foundation statistics showed.
Following the announcement in July of its planned closure, the museum has seen a significant increase in the number of visitors, the foundation said.
While the museum had 239 visitors in April, the number spiked to 2,073 in August, the foundation said, adding that there were 1,318 visitors last month.
The rise in visitors indicates that the public continues to care about issues relating to “comfort women” and is taking advantage of the final months before the museum’s closure to visit and say goodbye to the venue, the foundation said.
As the foundation searches for a new location to house the museum, it is raising funds to prepare for the move, it said, adding that it has created a crowdfunding page (zecz.ec/3j4KY8G) on the online platform ZecZec.
The foundation has set a target of NT$3 million to pay for related costs and, as of press time last night, it had raised NT$217,901, or about 7 percent of the target.
The crowdfunding page, which opened on Thursday evening, is scheduled to close on Nov. 10, the foundation said.
In the foundation’s statement, chief executive officer Tu Ying-chiu (杜瑛秋) said that while the government has suggested different locations to the foundation, none of them were suitable, as some would require large repair costs, while others did not have enough space to hold the museum’s collections or were in remote locations that would be difficult for visitors to reach.
The foundation has found a few smaller spaces that would reduce the rental cost by nearly a half, she said, adding that negotiations are under way.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
IDENTITY SHIFT: Asked to choose to identify as either Taiwanese or Chinese, 83.3 percent of respondents chose Taiwanese, while 8.4 percent chose Chinese An overwhelming majority of Taiwanese, 71.5 percent, think that Taiwan should compete in international competitions under the name “Taiwan,” a Taiwan Brain Trust survey published yesterday showed. Referring to Taiwan’s victory last month at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12, the survey results showed that 89.1 percent of respondents said that Taiwan’s exceptional performance in sporting competitions furthers national unity. Only 18.8 percent of respondents supported Taiwanese teams’ continued use of the name “Chinese Taipei” in international sporting competitions, the survey showed. Among Taiwan’s leading political parties, the name “Team Taiwan” was supported by 91.1 percent of self-identified Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters,
RSS