News

PROFILE: Resilient cultural campaigner pushes for local language studies despite ills

Wednesday, 13 August 2014 10:46 Taipei Times

Union of Education in Taiwan chairperson Cheng Cheng-iok holds a high-school Chinese textbook while speaking at a meeting in Taipei on Feb. 21.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

Despite having cancer, 68-year-old Union of Education in Taiwan chairperson Cheng Cheng-iok (鄭正煜) said he would continue urging the Ministry of Education to keep mandatory local language courses for the upcoming junior-high school year.

Born in 1946 in Cieding (茄萣) in what is now Greater Kaohsiung, Cheng became a junior-high school teacher after graduating from Chinese Culture University’s history department.

Aborigines dispute Morakot rebuild claims

Saturday, 09 August 2014 07:29 Taipei Times

Rukai Village resident Ngedrelre Druluan, standing, speaks at the Morakot Typhoon Disaster Fifth Anniversary press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Courtesy of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights

As the government celebrates what it termed the “successful reconstruction” of areas devastated by Typhoon Morakot in 2009 and launched an exhibition highlighting reconstruction results, Morakot survivors yesterday accused the government of lying, saying that reconstruction is far from complete.

Morakot is considered the worst storm to hit the nation in 50 years; its massive mudslides caused almost 700 deaths, permanently changed the landscape and forced thousands of people to relocate.