New Power Party uploads proposed passport designs for public to vote on
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/07
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(taiwanpassport.tw images)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Voting is now underway on a New Power Party (NPP) website for a series of new Taiwanese passport cover designs, which either minimize or entirely eliminate any mention of "China."
On July 22, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed a resolution to emphasize "Taiwan" over "China" on both the name of the nation's flagship carrier and its passport. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) resolution requires the Cabinet to work out specific measures to further emphasize both the Mandarin and English words for "Taiwan" (台灣) on the passport cover so as to "safeguard the dignity" of the Taiwanese people while contributing to convenient and safe international travel.
In response, the NPP on July 30 announced that it had created a shortlist of proposed designs for the new passport and uploaded them to a dedicated website for public voting. NPP Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) hoped the online vote would enable the public to discuss the future passport cover design and the image of Taiwan that the documents should present to the international community, reported Liberty Times.
Chen said the finalists for the competition were decided by National Chengchi University Institute of Taiwanese Literature Professor Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) and five other judges. Online voting will be open to the public on the Taiwanpassport.tw website from Aug. 1 to 30.
An awards ceremony for the winner will be held in September and an exhibition of the designs will run from Sept. 3-7 at the Olympus Plaza Taipei. Chen said the five criteria for the initial selection comprised: design philosophy, aesthetics, innovation, the reflection of Taiwanese society, and imaginativeness. [FULL STORY]
