A think tank affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is pushing for greater oversight of culture and arts policies and events, saying yesterday that it would establish an organization for such purposes while demanding that minister of culture-designate Lee Yuan (李遠) launch a government inquiry into why a gezai opera (歌仔戲, Taiwanese opera) production cost NT$86.96 million (US$2.7 million).
Urging the incoming administration to abandon multimillion-dollar art and culture events that are fleeting, including fireworks displays, the National Policy Foundation yesterday said that Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) was profligate and allegedly moved funding from other projects to cover the expenses of the 1624 opera.
The opera, despite its astronomical cost, had no official funding and the money it did receive was not subjected to standard audit procedures, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture via CNA
Shih diverted NT$75 million from the Promotion and Support for Performance Arts subproject under the ministry’s Planning and Development of Visual and Performance Arts project, it said.
Shih authorized the transfer of NT$11.96 million from the National Center for Traditional Arts to fund the opera, it added.
The opera took about one-quarter of the Ministry of Culture’s NT$388.97 million budget for the Planning and Development of Visual and Performance Arts project, the National Policy Foundation said.
That inadvertently took money away from other groups and local troupes, it said, adding that it cut subsidies for domestic performance groups of the traditional arts in half.
The government should consider how to improve development of the nation’s culture and arts sector, and prevent art from becoming a tool to pander to government-supported ideologies, it said.
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected the nation’s performance industry and many troupes that have weathered the pandemic are in dire need of funding, the foundation said, urging Lee to put his foot down on the ministry’s profligate habits and to inquire into the financing of 1624.
The foundation also said that Shih made a mess of a project to renovate the National Museum of History.
The renovations took six years and cost NT$1.27 billion, but they destroyed the public’s memories of the building by removing the red-brick wall, ravaging the gardens, and tearing down the warehouse and office areas, the foundation said.
No immediate response was available from the ministry.
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