Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week.
To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday.
School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs, are also to perform, Chueh said.
Photo: CNA
Olympic medalists Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷), Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) would also make appearances and are scheduled to sing the national anthem, and fashion models are to do a catwalk show, she said.
An official ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building is to be held on the morning of Thursday next week, where President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech, his first National Day address since taking office in May.
The ceremony, which begins at 9am, is to include performances by marching bands, cheerleading teams and acrobatic troupes, said Kuo Shu-jen (虢恕仁), a representative of the ceremony’s organizing team.
The singing of the national anthem would be led by three retired military personnel involved in the Battle of Guningtou over Kinmen County in 1949 and the teenage choir Nibun Chorus, Kuo said.
The Battle of Guningtou marked the failed attempt of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) troops to seize Kinmen and establish a foothold for further advances against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops that had relocated to Taiwan after losing to the CCP.
The celebrations would culminate in a 40-minute fireworks display at 8pm at Yunlin County’s Agriculture Expo Eco Park, Yunlin County Government official Su Chien-tsang (蘇建蒼) said.
Following the setting off of 30,000 fireworks, the event would be wrapped up by a drone show and a performance by singer Nana Lee (李千娜), Su said.
“The Republic of China [ROC] is like a dark and thin old man” who “has been locked up in a black hut for the past eight years,” said Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who also heads the official ceremony’s organizing team.
The metaphor of the shriveled up man reflects the KMT’s longstanding allegations that the Democratic Progressive Party government has deliberately downplayed the ROC’s symbols and flags at National Day celebrations.
The National Day ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building is usually organized by a team headed by the legislative speaker. This year’s event would mark the first time in eight years that the organizing team is led by an opposition leader.
Han also called on the public to “firm up” their belief in the ROC and demonstrate their patriotism by “hanging flags of the Republic of China” on Thursday next week.
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