Taipei Times
Date: May 30, 2017
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
A pair of stone “lion-dog” statues at the front gate of Taipei’s Yixian Elementary
One of two stone century-old guardian “lion-dog” statues, whose feet were smashed by vandals on Sunday evening, is pictured yesterday outside Yixian Elementary School in Taipei’s Beitou District. Photo: CNA
School that date back to the Japanese colonial era were allegedly destroyed by China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) member Lee Cheng-lung (李承龍) and a woman identified as Chiu Chin-i (邱晉芛) on Sunday evening.
The pair used Facebook live to broadcast themselves breaking the legs of the statues with a hammer at about 8pm on Sunday, leading to their arrest before they left the scene.
The pair are also said to be responsible for the decapitation of a bronze statue of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta in Tainan’s Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park in April.
The Taipei Department of Education yesterday said that although the two statues are not listed as protected historical sites, they have important historical value as they have been in place since the Japanese colonial era. [FULL STORY]
