Vice President Shieh Tung-min said literary and artistic works play an important role in the promotion of human relations and esthetic feelings among people.
At a presentation ceremony for the Fifth National Literary and Art Awards, presided over by Tsu Sung-chiu, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Fund for Literature and Art. The Vice President urged the winners of the awards and members of literary and art circles to "plant more seeds in their gardens" and enrich Chinese culture.
Twelve authors and artists received citations and cash prizes ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$100,000.
The Third Distinguished Magazine Awards were also presented.
Chens and Lins are leading names
A survey released by census officials has revealed that Chen, not Lin, as commonly believed, heads the list of some 100 leading family names in Taiwan. Lin is second.
There are about 1.8 million Chens, 1.3 million Lins, 1 million Huangs, 900,000 Changs, 800,000 Lis, 700,000 Wangs, 600,000 Wus, 500,000 Lius, 480,000 Tsais and 440,000 Yangs.
Of the 1,694 family names in the Taiwan area, 1,611 are made up of a single character, 75 have 2 characters, 4 have 3 characters and 4 have 4 characters.
There are many rare family names shared by only a few people.
Helen Quach hopes to keep orchestra
Miss Helen Quach, director-conductor of the Taipei Philharmonic, renewed her appeal that the Cathay Organization reconsider its decision to disband the 17-month-old orchestra.
Born in Vietnam, Helen Quach received her musical training in Australia. She won the Dimitri Mitropoulos competition for conductors at New York in 1967. After several brief visits to Taiwan, she decided to stay as head of the new Taipei Philharmonic. That was in September of 1978.
The orchestra was plagued by disputes from the beginning. Some Chinese players complained that they were paid less than foreigners.
Miss Quach turned the administrative side over to a man appointed by the Cathay Organization.
The Philharmonic gave 12 concerts up to last December 18, when the Cathay group served notice it would disband the orchestra January 1.
Helen Quach called the decision "sudden and unexpected." She and other musicians asked Cathay to honor the contract through September.
Miss Quach said that with an apartment owned by Cathay and NT$10 million worth of musical instruments and a fund of NT$5 million, she and other musicians could start another orchestra.
Chen Jo-hsi back in her home town
"I write for the future of all the Chinese instead of for any political power or system," author Chen Jo-hsi said upon her first return to her home town in 18 years.
Chen Jo-hsi, now living in Canada, said she might return for good, but "not in the near future." She did not exclude the possibility of teaching at her alma mater, National Taiwan University.
Her novel The Execution of Mayor Yin was written after she left the Chinese mainland. She described life during the "great cultural revolution" on the mainland in the mid-1960s. She stayed in Red China for seven years.
She said she had stage fright in facing so many people interested in her writing.
"I hope people won't treat me as a defector," she said. "I don't want to be involved in political propaganda."
Tourism getting more attention
The Republic of China will step up promotion of the tourism industry by taking part in conventions and exhibitions and improving domestic attractions.
Chu Kuo-shun, director of the Tourism Bureau, said groups will be sent to at least six conventions and exhibitions. An office will be opened in Australia or Europe.
The Tourism Bureau and Taiwan Visitors Association will help arrange visits and print tourist publications.
Development of attractions includes Kenting Park at the southern tip of the island. Tourist hotels are being built near Kenting Tropical Botanical Garden.
Tourists totaled 1,340,382 last year, an increase of 5.5 per cent over 1978, but down from the target of 10 per cent.
American visitors showed a decline of 24.5 per cent to 113,596.
The diplomatic break with Taipei "unfortunately created widespread notions that Americans are unsafe or unwelcome in Taiwan," Chu said.
Additionally, some Americans decided to go to mainland China.
Termination of travel to Taiwan by American military dependents was another factor.
The number of American visitors should pick up considerably this year, Chu said. Japanese will continue to account for the lion's share of visitors. Last year's count was 693,671.
More overseas Chinese are expected this year. The 1979 total was 243,647 from Hongkong and more than 40 countries.
The Taiwan Provincial Government said public facilities at some scenic spots are inadequate due to lack of funds. More parking space and toilets are needed. More than US$1 million will be spent on such facilities in fiscal 1981.
The Provincial Government will strengthen supervision of such scenic places as Wulai, Yehliu and Pitan.
Scholars and students welcome the Year of National Self-Reliance. (File photo)
Hotels may get more night clubs
The Cabinet decided not to classify night clubs of tourist hotels as special businesses and instructed government tourism agencies to set new regulations governing operation and taxation.
There are 34 tourist hotels in Taiwan, only six with night clubs.
The other 28 may be allowed to apply for permits.
Hoteliers have complained that night club charges are too high because of the taxes levied on "special businesses," which include dance halls and cabarets.
The Cabinet's decision makes it possible for government authorities to readjust entertainment taxes.
Biggest park to be enlarged
Yangmingshan Park, the biggest in Taipei, will be nearly doubled in size this year.
Manager Wang Pao-yi of the park said the area will be enlarged to 54 hectares.
Most of the new area is on the slope adjacent to the parking lot. It will be developed in the Chinese style with pavilions and lake.
The parking lot will be transformed into a meadow and forest nursery.
A parking garage has just been completed outside the park entrance to accommodate more than 40 buses and some 100 cars.
Construction of a parking garage for 1,000 cars will begin in June.
Saudis to support mosques and center
Two large mosques and an Islamic Cultural Center will be built in Taiwan with funds provided by Saudi Arabia.
Professor Ting Chung-ming, Imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque, said the mosques will be at Taichung and Kaohsiung. The cultural center will be in Taipei.
There are more than 40,000 Muslims in Taiwan, said the professor, who is also chairman of the Department of Arabic language, National Chengchi University, and holds the rank of counselor in the diplomatic service.
The new mosques will be larger than the Taipei Grand Mosque on Hsinsheng South Road.
The Islamic Cultural Center will be built on the site of the Ta-an District Clinic at the junction of Hsinsheng South Road and Hoping East Road.
The center will house a library named after the late King Faisel and a Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
Design of the three buildings is under way. Construction is expected to begin late this year with completion two years later.
Construction was proposed in1975 by Mohammed Omar Tawzik, the Saudi minister of transportation, who was in Taipei to attend memorial services for the late President Chiang Kai-shek.
Professor Ting called on King Khaled last year when he was on a hadj and presented him with the plans.
Professor Ting said there are five mosques in Taiwan—two in Taipei and one each in Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan. Except for the Taipei Grand Mosque on Hsinsheng South Road, they are very small.
Medical aid given Saudi Arabia
The Saudi health minister, Dr. Hussein Jazairi, has praised cooperation between the Kingdom and the Republic of China, saying it is based on long-standing friendship and not on oil entitlements or preconditions.
Dr. Jazairi signed a memorandum of understanding with Dr. Wang Chin-mao, director general of the Chinese National Health Administration, on medical cooperation under which the Chinese government is sending personnel to support the operation of new general hospitals at Hofuf and Jeddah.
Dr. Jazairi said there are shortages of doctors, nurses and medical assistants all over the world and that this makes medical cooperation highly important.
Seminars denounce independence group
Scholars, students, government officials and overseas Chinese took part in two Taipei seminars supporting self-reliance and denouncing Taiwan independence advocates.
Seventy students and scholars who studied abroad attended the Welcome the Year of National Self-Reliance Seminar.
Participants criticized Taiwan independence advocates for distorting the current situation in the Republic of China.
The Yellow River magazine led a discussion of "cheap politicians who attempted to sell out the country."
Chao Hsiao-mei, headmaster of the Hsihu School of Commerce, presided.
Both seminars assailed the role of independence advocates in the Kaohsiung incident.
Rural areas to get medical care
The Health Department of the Taiwan Provincial Government will provide NT$710 million to improve medical facilities, equipment and services in remote areas.
Programs will include:
—Construction of 189 small clinics, reconstruction of 116 health centers and 50 small clinics, and rehabilitation of 89 health centers and 120 small clinics.
—Installation of 10 emergency rooms at 10 local health centers.
—Construction of dormitories for physicians.
—Increase in health and medical facilities and equipment at 116 health centers and 250 small clinics.
—Purchase of two ambulances for every city and county.
—Installation of telephones at 31 health centers.
More beds needed at hospitals
Hospitals in the Taipei-Keelung area are not adequately equipped as an emergency treatment network, according to a survey commissioned by the National Science Council and undertaken by the Public Health Department of the National Defense Medical Center.
The survey of 172 hospitals with 14,000 beds in the Taipei-Keelung area showed 154 had emergency facilities but only 16 had 200 or more beds. Only five hospitals had 400 or more beds.
The area population is 4.5 million. Figuring on a basis of 4.5 beds per 1,000 persons, the Taipei-Keelung area needs another 5,600 beds.
The survey said death by accident has passed heart disease to become the No.3 killer. Most accidental deaths result from motorcycle accidents.
Debit cards under study
Credit cards have served consumers around the world for many years.
Taiwan is just examining the possibilities. Two cards exist but are not widely held. Study of a "debit card" is under way.
Issuance of cards would be based on bank deposits. These would not be "credit" cards.
Some present card holders say the debit plan would be inconvenient. Expenditures could not exceed deposits.
A decision on the business is expected this year.
Restaurant offers bizarre dishes
"You name it and we have it," said the manager of a restaurant specializing in bizarre food.
The menu ranges from anteaters to zebras.
Restaurant An Lo (or Ong Lok in Cantonese because it is owned and managed by Cantonese from Hongkong) was opened in Taipei some months ago.
Other menu listings are badger, monkey, mountain dog, owl, snake and wild duck. The manager said tiger and leopard are not available.
"We offer only what we can catch in the mountains of Taiwan," he said. "We don't serve crocodile, either."
A customer ordered a 20-course all-snake dinner. "We need a boa constrictor," the manager said.
"Don't be scared away by prices. You can have a good meal for 12 at from NT$4,000 to NT$5,000, no more expensive than most meals in any high-class restaurant. The most expensive meal we can serve won't cost more than NT$40,000 for 12."
Retired servicemen processing canned food at one of their plants. (File photo)
Senior citizens get discounts
Senior citizens of 70 or over will get 50 per cent discounts on transportation and at recreational and cultural facilities.
The new welfare law also requires medical institutions to reduce fees and rates for seniors.
Other highlights of the law:
—The Ministry of Interior will be in charge.
—Governments are encouraged to appropriate funds for senior citizens.
—Institutional care will be provided as required, including homes, medical facilities and other services.
—Provision of burial funds.
—Regular health examinations.
—Participation of senior citizens in social, educational, religious and cultural activities.
Old soldiers aren't fading
"Old soldiers never die" doesn't mean they fade away in the Republic of China.
Millions of former servicemen have continued to devote themselves to the country through the Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen.
Some veterans work at factories operated by VACRS. Their quality products are sold at home and abroad.
For example, the Veterans Food Products Factory turns out such products as canned vegetables and fruits, snacks and beef.
Foods are prepared for dispatch to the Chinese mainland via balloons and floats. Annual output includes 40,000 cans (250 grams) and 20,000 cans (500 grams) of lard and 500,000 packs of snacks.
Products are exported to Japan, the United States, Britain, Singapore, Jordan and other countries.
Medical ceilings set too low
Medicines prescribed for patients covered by labor insurance are not supposed to exceed NT$83 in value. Legislator Hsieh Ming-shan said this ceiling set by the Labor Insurance Bureau is too low.
Doctors sometimes pay for prescriptions out of their own pockets.
The Labor Insurance Bureau pays NT$600 maximum for an appendectomy and NT$1,500 for a stomach operation. Hospitalization allowances are also too low, Chin said.
Pan Lien-fang, another lawmaker, urged the Labor Insurance Bureau to raise free medical service to the level provided under the Public Functionaries Insurance Program.
Interior Minister Chiu Chuang-huan said that as of the end of October, 30,567 organizations had subscribed to Labor Insurance and 2,277,975 persons were covered.
There were 1,721 clinics and hospitals serving those insured.
TV helps children learn language
Watching TV helps children with language, according to a survey by Taiwan Normal University commissioned by the National Science Council.
Fourth and fifth graders were divided into 25-pupil groups of "no TV," "long term TV" and "short term TV."
TV had an effect on the language learning ability of the children. Long term TV children acquired language faster than no TV children.
The survey also found that TV cuts down on hours for other activities, including lessons and sports, but that children learn from it.
Cultural center plans advanced
A cultural center will be built in each city and county, Shih Chin-chih, commissioner of the Taiwan Provincial Department of Education, said.
Of the 19 centers, 14 will be constructed in fiscal 1980 and the rest in fiscal 1981.
Shih presided over the first meeting of the preparatory committee. The following decisions were reached:
—To establish a library and exhibition room at each center.
—Music halls and art halls will be under the Department of Education.
—Buildings will be in keeping with local history, geography and culture.
—The Taiwan Provincial Government will provide a subsidy of NT$90 million for each center.