Taiwan Today

Judicial Yuan takes over courts The Judicial Yuan has assumed jurisdiction over the Taiwan High Court and district courts under a newly enacted law separating trials from prosecution. The Ministry of Justice, which used to have jurisdiction over the High Court and district courts, is now known as the Ministry of Judicial Affairs. The Ministry of Judicial Affairs will have charge of matters involving prosecution, jail administration and protection and rehabilitation of prisoners, and will serve as legal counsel for the Cabinet. Justice Minister Li Yuan-zu is now minister of the Ministry of Judicial Affairs. In an interpretation, the Grand Justices of the Judicial Yuan said that according to Article 77 of the Constitution, the trial of civil and criminal cases by judges at the level of High Court and district courts should join the Supreme Court under the jurisdiction of the Judicial Yuan. President Chiang issued a decree ordering preparations for the separation. A special team was formed to implement the reorganization, which included revision of the organizational laws of the Executive Yuan, Judicial Yuan, courts and Ministry of Justice. The revised laws were passed by the Legislative Yuan and promulgated by the President. Christians back government Some 10,000 Christians, including preachers, joined the campaign to express allegiance to the Republic of China and support of the government. At a press conference, the Rev. John Huang, chairman of the Church Leadership of the Republic of China, said people of the Republic of China enjoy freedom of religion. Influenced by the Communists, some local preachers have sowed seeds of discord, he said. The Rev. Huang read the following statement: "We, the undersigned members of several Protestant denominations in Taiwan, including Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Assembly of God and Holiness Churches, believe in the Bible as God's word and salvation through Jesus Christ. "There is complete freedom of religion in Taiwan and we have not seen any restrictions on our religious activities. We are disturbed to hear of some perverted rumors that religions are persecuted here. "We believe that the Christians and their leaders are not immune from the law when they violate it for their political ambitions. We would like the world to know that we Christians in Taiwan enjoy religious freedom in the Republic of China to a full extent." Archbishop Stanislaus Lokuang, president of Fu Jen Catholic University, spoke on "Religion and Politics" at the Sun Yat-sen memorial meeting of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). He said the government of this country is open-minded and its policy is to save the country and the people. The principle of religion is not to meddle in politics, he added. When matters affecting the life or death of the country and the felicity of the nation are involved, religion should work with the government, he said. Although there are many religions in the Republic of China, Archbishop Lokuang continued, they should not differ in helping the government in social work, economic development and education. He cited history and principle to illustrate his contention that religion should not interfere in politics. Red Hair Castle returned to China The premises of the former British consulate known as "Red Hair Castle" were returned to the government. Joseph Twanmoh, president of Soochow University and attorney, represented the British government. The castle was rented to the British government permanently in 1867. The consulate was closed in March of 1972. Originally called Wuwei Castle, the building was erected as a Spanish missionary center in 1628. When the Dutch drove the Spanish out in 1630, it became known as "Red Hair Castle." Built in the European style with red-brick walls, it is probably the oldest building in northern Taiwan. In front of the castle are four old cannon. A staircase leads to the top of the building and a fine view of the Tamsui River. It takes a chop to do anything In Taiwan a person cannot get married, divorced, buy a house or borrow money without a chop, or personal seal. Chop carving—the engraving of Chinese characters on stone, ivory or jade—is an art. In his 53 years as a master chop carver, Wang Wang-sun has carved some 170,000 characters and cut more than 30,000 chops for government officials and dignitaries, including President Chiang Kai-shek and Vice President Shieh Tung-ming. Prices can be as high as 100,000 Taiwan dollars for a single seal. Wang once turned down an offer of 13,000 dollars because he didn't like the man's name. "I have three conditions for making a chop," he said. "I must like the person, the name must be a good one and the quality of the stone must be high." Since chops have the legal validity of signatures, they are closely guarded. Ho Hao-tien, director of the National Palace Museum, calls Wang the best of today's chop carvers. Wang has taken on a few students to carry on the tradition of artistic seal cutting. Right to left and top to bottom How should one write or read the Chinese language: from left to right, from right to left—or from top to bottom? All are right, according to the Cabinet. The ruling, which took effect July 1, will be enforced by persuasion, not compulsion. The Ministry of Education said: —In principle, the writing or printing of Chinese characters should be arranged vertically from top to bottom and from right to left. —If Chinese texts are to be arranged horizontally, the proper direction is from left to right. However, if there is only a single line such as the name of a country or organization, denominations of banknotes and stamps, etc., the direction should be reversed (i.e. from right to left). —Characters printed on cars, buses or trucks should run from front to rear. —If the vertical and horizontal formats appear together, the horizontal characters should follow the left to right order. According to the Ministry of Education, the scheme was devised by taking into consideration (1) the characteristics of the Chinese ideographs, (2) cultural traditions and (3) modern practice and usage. Cheng Kung U. gets new prexy The Ministry of Education named Dr. Han M. Hsia president of the National Cheng Kung University at Tainan. Hsia, formerly the vice minister of education, succeeds Dr. Wei-noon Wang, who died July 2 at the age of 47. Dr. Hsia, 49, of Fukien, was a graduate of the Chinese Naval Academy and obtained his MS from the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University. He received his doctorate from Oklahoma State University. After his return to Taiwan, he taught at Cheng Kung University, served as president of the Kaohsiung Institute of Technology and as director of the Department of Technological and Vocational Education of the Ministry of Education. Koxinga to star in Taiwan movie The Tainan City Government has decided to cooperate with a motion picture company to shoot a movie biography of Koxinga. Koxinga, whose original name was Cheng Cheng-kung, lived from 1623 to 1663 and led many unsuccessful campaigns of the Southern Ming Dynasty against the invading Ch'ing Dynasty from 1646 to 1660. He captured part of Formosa from the Dutch in 1661. The population of the southern coast of China was evacuated in 1662 to facilitate defenses against his raids. His son Cheng Ching held his domains in Taiwan until 1683. The Tainan City Historical Records Association carried out textual research and decided that the site of the landing of Koxinga was Luerh (Deer's Ear) Gate at Anping Harbor. The appearance of Koxinga will be based on the bronze statues of the national hero situated in front of the railway station and Yenping Chunwang Shrine in Tainan City. Data about the deeds of Koxinga were gathered by the association from historical records of the Dutch and Japanese and a book found in a German library. An expert will write the script. Most of the scenes will be shot at the Folkways Village at Tainan City. Savings will help build houses The Ministry of Finance announced new regulations for housing loans. Anyone may open a savings account for the purpose of buying a house. After one to four years of savings, a buyer may obtain a loan for three times the amount of his deposits but not more than NT$1 million. Loans may be repaid in 5 to 20 years. C. D. Wang, director of the Monetary Department, Ministry of Finance, said that ordinarily house buyers have to obtain the title, then apply for a loan. Under the new program, he doesn't have to acquire the title. Old as well as new houses are eligible. Designated banks are the Bank of Taiwan, City Bank of Taipei, Land Bank of Taiwan, Cooperative Bank of Taiwan, First Commercial Bank, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Central Trust of China and International Commercial Bank of China. The program will be tried for a year. Wang said the Central Bank will provide special discounts to the banks. More refugees from Vietnam A group of 140 ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam arrived in Taiwan for temporary resettlement. There were 56 males and 84 females. Taiwan resettled 3,658 ethnic Chinese refugees from Indochina between 1975 and 1980 and has accommodated 346 Indochinese "boat people" picked up from high seas between last June and July this year. The U.S. State Department recognized Taiwan as the fourth leading country after the United States, West Germany and Japan in providing relief to Indochinese refugees. Taiwan offered 30,000 metric tons of rice, the equivalent of US$1 billion, to feed the homeless people in Southeast Asia. Of the rice, 7,500 metric tons went to Indonesia, 7,500 to the Philippines and 500 to Macao. Taiwan families living well Average family annual income last year was NT$210,073 and spending NT$137,666. In the Taiwan Provincial Government survey, 10,926 households out of 2,730,000 were surveyed. Salaries were the main source of family income at 60.1 per cent and food was the major item of expenditure. Family expenses rose 21.4 per cent in 1979 with food accounting for 38.4 per cent of the total. These other statistics were compiled: —Average of 1 television set per household, 56 per cent of them color. —Every 1.1 households own a refrigerator, 1.8 a washing machine and 1.3 a motorcycle. —Average of 1 phone for every 2.9 households. —Every 1.9 households subscribe to a newspaper. Farm living standards have been greatly improved in the last few years as a result of the government's efforts to accelerate rural reconstruction projects, according to a report of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The average expenditure of each farm household in 1978 was NT$132,837, an increase of 52 per cent over the NT$87,532 of five years ago. Average income of farm households during the five-year period from 1974 to 1978 increased from NT$169,000 to NT$250,000, up 48 per cent. Most of the farm households have installed modern appliances. In 1978, every 100 households had 22 color TV sets, 68 B/W TV sets, 73 refrigerators and 21 washing machines. In 1974, every 100 households had 2 color TV sets, 60 B/W TV sets, 25 refrigerators and 6 washing machines. In 1974, only 1 of 100 farm households had a telephone and none had an air conditioner. By 1978, 8 of 100 had a telephone and a few had air conditioners. Seventy of 100 households had a motorcycle, compared with 41 out of 100 in 1974. Farmers are reading more. In 100 households, 26 subscribed to newspapers or magazines in 1978 compared with 15 in 1974. Small schools deemed wasteful The Taiwan Provincial Department of Education is studying the problem of wasteful small schools, hoping to find a solution without affecting the education of children in out-of-the-way communities. Small schools are those with no more than six classes. Most are in sparsely populated mountain communities. There were 574 such schools in the last school year, over half in Nantou, Hualien, Tainan, Chiayi, Taitung and Pingtung Counties. The combined enrollment of these schools was 82,473 in the last school year for an average of 143.6 students and an average class size of 25.38, about half the usual number. One of the schools in Hsinchu had only 15 students in the last school year with a faculty of 7. Taipei's Lao Sung Primary School has more than 10,000 pupils. Schooling costs are compared It costs the government NT$63,590 to train a medical student for one academic year, the Ministry of Education said. At private colleges, a medical student is trained for NT$22,317 per year. Costs at other colleges: —College of engineering: NT$53,288 government-supported and NT$22,394 private. —College of sciences: NT$52,919 government-supported and NT$23,898 private. —College of agriculture: NT$52,450 government-supported and NT$20,893 private. —College of commerce: NT$45,290 government-supported and NT$19,515 private. —College of liberal arts: NT$44,948 government-supported and NT$18,988 private. —College of law: NT$44,329 government-supported and NT$18,609 private. —College of education: NT$45,788 government-supported. In the 1978 academic year, government-supported primary schools spent NT$5,379 per pupil and private schools NT$5,567. At junior high schools the cost was NT$7,677 at government-supported schools and NT$9,053 at private ones. At the senior high level, government-supported schools spent NT$13,237 and private schools NT$12,154. Education costs have been on the rise over the past years. In the academic year of 1978, the government spent NT$36.7 billion or 4.01 per cent of the GNP on schooling. Scientists help with defense The Chungshan Institute of Science has recruited more than 300 local and overseas Chinese scientists for research and development activities in connection with national defense, Lt. Gen. Tang Chun-po (retired), head of the institute, said. General Tang said the institute maintains contacts with some 270 overseas Chinese scientists. A fund of NT$3.7 billion is available to finance defense-related research and development. Work is under way on fast assault boats, a jet trainer, anti-tank missiles, armored personnel carriers, radar, spare parts of weapons, steel alloys and high-strength aluminum alloys. Tang said development of the defense industry has been progressing satisfactorily with government promotion and the participation of civilian industries. The Cabinet said the Republic of China has succeeded in developing and manufacturing sophisticated weapons. Offices open in Western Europe The Republic of China maintains cultural and economic organizations in 13 Western European countries, the Executive Yuan said. Functions cover cultural information and news, tourism, and trade and economics. The Cabinet said more such organizations will be set up to increase cooperation between the Republic of China and democratic nations with which it does not have formal diplomatic ties. The government is encouraging six European nations—Britain, West Germany, France, Spain, Greece and Belgium—to establish similar offices in the Republic of China. No cheap power for tourist hotels The government will not offer preferential power rates to tourist hotels. At a meeting attended by Communications Minister Lin Chin-sheng, Economic Minister K.S. Chang and members of the Legislative Yuan, it was decided that tourist hotels will have to pay regular rates. Owners of tourist hotels had asked the government to reduce power rates by half. Minister Lin said: "If we cut rates by half, ordinary hotels will ask for similar treatment. Jeweler's shops will also ask for a discount because they serve tourists. "Power rates in Taiwan are much cheaper than in South Korea and Japan," Minister Chang said. He cited the power bills of the Grand Hotel in Taipei, which uses an average 1 million kilowatts of power monthly at a cost of NT$3.28 million. The same amount of power would cost NT$8.79 million in Korea and NT$4.84 million in Japan. The 35 international tourist hotels and 92 tourist hotels in Taiwan have 18,323 rooms. Korea establishes tourism office Spurred by the rapid increase of Chinese visitors in the first half of this year, the Korea National Tourism Corporation has set up an office in Taiwan. Roe Hun Ho, vice president of the KNTC's promotion and publicity division, said 60,000 Chinese tourists from Taiwan visited Korea during the January-June period. "The figure," he reported, "is close to the 1979 total of 70,000. "We expect Chinese tourists to number about 150,000 this year." South Korea expects to attract 1.25 million tourists this year with most of the increase from Taiwan. Japanese tourists are on the decline. The Taipei office is KNTC's 18th overseas. Some of the others are in New York, Los Angeles, Osaka, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Zurich, Stockholm, Hongkong, Singapore, Sydney and Honolulu. Oh Sang Keun is the director. South Korea spends about US$100 million a year on tourist promotion. Artifacts found on east coast Bulldozers have turned up stone coffins and utensils and shards of black porcelain at Peinan, a few miles northwest of Taitung. The relics were unearthed as road gangs cleared the route for the Kaohsiung-Taitung railroad. Wei Chu-hsien, professor of archeology at Fu Jen Catholic University, examined the finds and said they are between 2,000 and 6,000 years old. Inside the stone coffins were plates and utensils made of black porcelain. Tablets, knives and plates made of stone were found. The Taitung County Government asked a halt to the railway work pending examination by archeologists. Relic hunters carted away most of the finds. Professor Wei, who visited the site, said the artifacts probably were from what archeologists call the "Peinan race." He believes the Peinan people must have communicated with the Han people on the mainland. Solar energy used to heat water Extensive experiments are under way in Taiwan to harness solar energy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In a recent experiment conducted by the Tatung Institute of Technology, a device has been developed to use solar energy to heat water for home use. Efficiency is 40 per cent in winter, heating water to 60 degrees C., and 50 per cent in summer, heating water to 89 degrees C. Tatung engineers ruled out the possibility of solar energy being widely used to heat homes in Taiwan and said a more practical application would be for drying tobacco and grains. At Chiayi in southern Taiwan, a solar experiment was set up in 1977 to dry tobacco.