Taiwan Inaugurates First Female President

Today's featured postcard was a private swap from Taiwan showing the Office of the President, Republic of China in Taipei with a ROCUPEX '13 TAIPEI commemorative postage label from the 2013 National Stamp Exhibition of R.O.C. and International Invitational Stamp Exhibition, and a matching pictorial postmark on August 23, 2013. The Office of the President is the site of the inauguration ceremony this Friday, May 20, 2016 where Tsai Ing-wen took oath of office to become the first female president of Taiwan.

Tsai Ing Wen (R) replaces former President Ma Ying Jeou (L) after a landslide election victory on January 16, 2016. She faces immediate challenges to revitalize the economy, and to balance the demands of the her electorate for greater independence and the pressure of One-Country from China.

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Taipei 101

Eleven years ago on October 17, 2003, the pinnacle was fitted onto the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei. At 508 meters or 1,667 feet, it surpassed the Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 meters or 1,483 feet) in Kuala Lumpur by 56 meters or 184 feet and had been the tallest building in the world until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010.

Postcard TW-851403 from Taiwan shows an elegant illustration of Taipei 101, highlighting the design that symbolizes the combination of modern technology evolution and Asian tradition  The repeated segments, eight of them in total, mimics the rhythms of an Asian pagoda that bridges the earth and the sky. The tower also reminds people the color and shape of a bamboo shoot that represents perseverance, learning and growth.

In comparison, Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, stands at 350.2 meters or 1,149 feet.

Secret Memo to the Emperor

Postcard TW-1378800 from Taiwan, styled after file folders for secret memos to the emperor in ancient China, was one of the three new postcards made by the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Those memos ranged from official statements of the facts, proposals of measures, and greetings. The emperor would mark the memo as read with a cinnabar red pen and return it to the sender. Last year, the National Palace Museum in Taipei issued paper tapes with an emperor's handwriting "marked as read", as part of a cultural and creative project. It was an instant success.

Taiwan celebrated the Double Ten Day - its National Day on October 10, 2014, the 103rd birthday of the Republic of China (ROC). The ROC government fled to Taiwan in 1949 in a civil war against communist forces in mainland China, and moved more than 696,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks from the Forbidden City in Beijing to Taipei, which became the National Palace Museum's permanent collection.

Tamsui, Taiwan

Postcard TW-908889 from Taiwan offers an aerial view from the north of Tamsui District (淡水區) in New Taipei City, Taiwan. It is a sea-side district where the Tamsui River, whose name means "fresh water", flows west into the Taiwan Strait. As a natural harbor, Tamsui was a major fishing and trade port in history because of its proximity to mainland China.

Twenty six years ago, the Tamsui Line,  a railroad branch line operated by the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and connected Taipei and Tamsui, closed on July 15, 1988. The Taipei Metro Tamsui Line was later built along the route. Upon the completion of the Metro Line in 1997, Tamsui experienced a dramatic increase of tourist traffic. Tamsui is popular for viewing the sunset into the Taiwan Strait, for various activities on several riverside parks, and for shopping at open-air markets specializing in traditional handicrafts and street-vendor snacks. Visitors can also visit a fisherman's wharf, and take ferries traversing across and along the river.

Tamsui is home to three universities: Aletheia University, Tamkang University, and St. John's University. On the upper left of the postcard, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) can be seen in the background.

The Horrifying Search - The 228 Massacre in Taiwan

Postcard HK-126198 from Hongkong was entitled "the Horrifying Search - The 228 Massacre in Taiwan." Measured 14x18.3 cm, the illustration was first published by WenWeiPo, a newspaper in Shanghai, on April 28, 1947.

The 228 Massacre was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began in 1947. After the Japanese rule of Taiwan for 50 years ended in 1945 due to Japan's loss in World War II, Republic of China government, led by the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), took control of Taiwan. However, local inhabitants became resentful over the perception of corrupted KMT authorities that tended to seize private property arbitrarily and mismanage economy. A dispute between a cigarette vendor and an officer of the Office of Monopoly on February 27 triggered civil disorder in Taipei and an open rebellion spread to the whole island and lasted for days. The uprising was violently suppressed beginning on February 28, or 2/28, resulting in the massacre of more than 10,000 civilians.

The incident marked the beginning of the KMT's White Terror period in Taiwan as the island was placed under martial law. Thousands more had vanished, died, or were imprisoned, before martial law was lifted on July 14, 1987. This incident is one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history. It continues to divide Taiwan after 66 years.

恐怖的檢查 -- 臺灣二二八事件 by 黃榮燦（力軍）民國36年(1947) 4月28日上海文匯報首度刊登

Double Ten Day

October 10 is the Double Ten Day that celebrates outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in Hubei Province, China in 1911. It began with the local dissatisfaction about the nationalization of railway lines, and soon became a crisis and escalated to an uprising that ended the Qing Dynasty and ushered in the Republic of China (ROC) in 1912. Following the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China took full control of mainland China and founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The ROC relocated its government to Taiwan and continued to recognize the Double Ten Day as the National Day of ROC,

The island of Taiwan, formerly known as "Formosa", was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines until the Dutch settlement during the Age of Discovery in the 17th century, when ethnic Chinese began immigrating to the island. The shaped postcard, showing a historical map of Taiwan around that time, was one of my earliest postcard collections. It was acquired when I was in Taipei to attend a joint conference GIS AM/FM Asia'97 & GeoInformatics'97: Mapping the Future of Asia Pacific. held from May 26 to May 29 in 1997. It was mailed back to the US and had a postmark dated on June 3, 1997.

 

Postcard from the 5th Annual Taiwan PostCrossing Meetup

5th Annual Taiwan PostCrossing Meetup

PostCrossers from Taiwan just had their successful 5th annual meetup in Taipei on June 8, 2013. Co-hosted by the Philatelic and Penpal Society of the National Taiwan University, there was a postcard exhibition on June 7, and June 8 at NTU's 1st Student Activity Center.

The official cancellation stamp was designed by Weital. He also designed the cancellation stamp for the 4th Annual Taiwan PostCrossing Meetup in 2012. That was the first ever official PostCrossing cancellation stamp in the world.

The postcard I received today from the event took 12 days to travel from Taiwan to USA. It was designed by Midorilee's very talented teenage daughter. 

The meetup organizer Dodd was recently recognized as a Postcrossing Ambassador.

2013 Taiwan PYCON: May 25-26

2012 Tawain PYCON Postcard

PyCon Taiwan (PyConTW) just concluded their 2013 convention on May 26. PyConTW is an annual celebration for the Python community, by the Python community, and of the Python community in Taiwan. The conference highlights Python related technology and applications. It is the place to share knowledge and to inspire new ideas, to network and to collaborate projects. 

I received a postcard of Taiwan PYCON 2012 last year. It was held from June 6 to June 10, 2012, with focus on industrial applications of Python.