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Hall change recalls the fall of the Berlin Wall

WATCHING THE RECENT TV news coverage of the government replacing the Chinese characters honoring Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) with characters honoring Taiwan's long march to freedom and democracy reminded this American observer of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Although the international news media did not cover the sign change, the event surely will go down in the history books as a significant signpost in the evolution of democracy in Asia.

The news should have been front page news in the New York Times, Le Monde and major German newspapers as well, not to mention prominently featured on CNN and the BBC. But no, it seems a dishonest kayaker in Britain received more news coverage for his five-year disappearing act than Taiwan did for its act of freedom and democracy.

Let's go back to those heady days in Berlin in 1989, where a wall that had divided East and West Berlin for 28 years was dismantled amid global fanfare. The international news media was there in droves, covering every word uttered by every official on the scene, not to mention quotes and quips from bystanders and passersby, German and non-German.

Every major news outlet in the world covered the fall of the Berlin Wall because it was a momentous occasion, an historic event, and a local story with global implications.

But when a few signs in Taipei get changed to reflect a new consciousness of national identity, based on the convoluted evolution of democracy in this country, the world does not even stop to notice. Of course, there's the global warming conference in Bali, there's the British kayaker and his wife involved in a crazy insurance scam, and there's the shopping mall shooting in the US.

Old signs get changed in Taipei to reflect a new way of thinking about freedom and democracy? Who cares? As so many newspaper and TV editors and reporters outside Taiwan agree, Taiwan does not matter, never mattered and never will matter. China matters and Taiwan is invisible, they seem to believe.

The Berlin Wall coming down was a big deal. Then US president Ronald Reagan said so. All the European leaders said so. Editorials in Japanese and Taiwanese newspapers said so. Communist China, of course, where freedom did not and still does not ring, said nothing.

However, when the former CKS Memorial Hall gets an historic name change, the world hardly notices. Such a minor event is apparently no big deal for the foreign media, hardly worth mentioning for the international news media with more urgent things on their front pages.

But what happened in Taipei this month will surely be remembered here in Taiwan, in the nation's history books and in school lessons and textbooks. No, the memorial itself did not come tumbling down, no walls were demolished and nobody died during those few precious days. But a huge milestone was reached along Taiwan's freeway of national identity.

CNN should have been there, and the New York Times should have sent a reporter and a photographer over to cover the story, too. Shouldn't an influential German newspaper have put the story on its frontpage, too?

But no, Taiwan's road to democracy is not something the international media wants to travel on unless there is something sensational and headline-grabbing as army troops firing on protesters and hundreds of people dying in a bloody Tiananmen Square-like repetition. The sign changes at Liberty Square and Democracy Hall in Taiwan just don't sing loud enough for the overseas media to notice.

But they were wrong not to notice.

Something is very different in Taiwan now. An old "wall" has been dismantled.

Dan Bloom is a freelance writer based in Taiwan.
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