On the day before Mother's Day, Mayor Huang Wei-che sent out painter's palettes from Liujia to all foreign representatives and press in Taiwan who had visited before Tainan to thank them for their continuous support of Tainan City and its interactions with the world. The beautiful flowers are currently the most popular blossom in Tainan City, and its name sounds similar to "to become well" in the Taiwanese dialect. The Mayor wished the foreign representatives and their fellow country people good health during the pandemic and prays that the pandemic will end soon in Taiwan and the world.
Since the global COVID-19 pandemic started this January, Tainan City has been following Central Epidemic Command Center policies and temporarily suspended or postponed large events, or reduced the number of participants at gatherings. Thus the representatives did not have many opportunities to visit Tainan this year. Nonetheless, Tainan sent them painter's palettes to express the city’s gratitude for the representatives’ long-term support and to show that Tainan has not neglected their relationship.
In the letter Mayor Huang sent over with the flowers, he pointed out that May is painter’s palette season in Tainan. Its blossom is shaped like a heart, which expresses the city’s gratitude to the foreign representatives and press for their support. The Mayor also brought up the fact that Tainan has the least confirmed cases of COVID and is a relatively safe area in Taiwan. He hopes that more foreign visitors will come to Tainan and show some support to local businesses and farmers which were affected by the pandemic.
Tainan has the largest painter's palette growing area in Taiwan and Liujia is the largest production district in the city. Tainan is also a major painter's palette export zone with Japan, Singapore, and Australia as their main export destinations. The painter's palette indicates “a burning heart, passion, care and sincere best wishes”, and the way painter's palette is pronounced in the Taiwanese dialect sounds like "to become well", which also conveys best wishes to the receiver.