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Cultural festivals are increasingly being used as tools for political messaging, something highlighted clearly in a recent report by the Taipei Times. According to the Taipei Times, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has "hijacked" the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, also known as the Qingming festival, by turning it into a political united front event.
The Taipei Times reported that China's United Front Work Department organised a large public ceremony in Shaanxi Province to honour the Yellow Emperor, inviting former KMT acting chairperson Lin Jung-tzer to present a flower basket. The Taipei Times noted that while the Yellow Emperor is a legendary figure said to be the first ancestor of the Chinese nation, the MAC stressed that Qingming traditions of ancestral worship have no connection to this myth. Yet the CCP continues to politicise the holiday through high-profile ceremonies. According to the report, Senior Chinese officials, including Losang Jamcan, Yang Zhen, Zhao Yide, and Zhang Zhijun, took part in the event, which opened with 34 symbolic drumbeats representing all of China's provinces and regions, including Taiwan. The ceremony also highlighted the Siyuan Tomb as a symbol of "shared ancestry". These details were widely covered by the Taipei Times. Taipei Times reported that Shaanxi Governor Zhao Gang used the ceremony to declare that Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan share a "national destiny" and that the "trend of unification allows no separatism". Experts quoted by the Taipei Times say such rhetoric shows the ceremony's clear political intention. In Taipei, Taiwan Society chairman Weng Ming-jang told the Taipei Times that the CCP does not traditionally worship spirits, making the Yellow Emperor ritual a united front tactic tailored to Taiwanese cultural practices. Inviting Taiwanese political figures, he added, is a well-known part of Beijing's influence strategy. (ANI)
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