KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN - Media OutReach - 30 December 2020 - A full century has elapsed since Kaohsiung's renaming from Takao in 1920. To commemorate this watershed moment in time, the Kaohsiung City Government has organized a series of celebratory events across different settings and sectors. A highlight was the grand lighting-up for Kaohsiung 100 on December 24. Next, on New Year's Eve, there will be live performances of different types--popular music, artistic presentations, and performing arts--on three stages: one in the Kaohsiung Port warehouse area, one outside the Kaohsiung Music Center, and another on an offshore platform in Love River Bay.

Kaohsiung Port awash with light beams to commemorate city name's centennial.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai said that the 2020 New Year's Eve celebrations, with the Kaohsiung 100 visual identity at the center, feature rays of light going out in all directions, thereby matching the port city's space across sea, land, and air against its historical flow over the course of a century. In other words, Kaohsiung is not only celebrating the 100^th anniversary of its current name but also showing to the world that its citizens have worked hand in hand to tide over an ongoing pandemic and have the resolve to strive for a brighter future at an accelerated pace.

The development of Kaohsiung is closely associated with Japan. In 2020, a window on Kaohsiung over the past century takes form out of projections thrown on the walls of buildings along the Love River. Visitors to the port city are offered a virtual time machine ride to get glimpses of key happenings in its past. The aforesaid offshore platform is turned into an unprecedented stage where the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra will deliver a most magnificent performance. To top it off, there will be a splendid light show put on by a fleet of drones in the sky over Love River Bay, the starting point out of which Kaohsiung has evolved into the metropolis it is today. Join us to light up Kaohsiung Port as we look back at the city's past 100 years and ahead to its next 100.