Thu, Feb 14, 2008 page8

• LETTERS: A motto for Taiwan

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  "Liberty, combat, philanthropy" might be a good motto for Taiwan.

  Liberty is a question to be dealt with as a matter of the utmost urgency -- as a legacy from the people who sacrificed their life for it, like so many lilies engraved on the road of Taiwan's human rights.

  Liberty can be compared to a strong but sensitive woman, ready to fight for her children and family, her friends and neighbors and the natural environment as well. She can cook and feed, before transmitting her knowledge to her children; she also reads and inspires, and teaches her children accordingly. She is the weapon against cold-blooded rationalism and greed for money that infects so many people nowadays and destroys nature.

  Liberty is an entity whose name deserves to be written everywhere, as Paul Eluard urged in his poem, "on all pages and screens, on the horizon too and the wings of birds." Why is it so important to write her name everywhere? To free yourself from the old yokes -- masters and commanders -- and the new yokes, which are money and materialism.

  Every Taiwanese has the right to be the master of his or her fate. Why do we need the Liberty Square instead of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial? Because Liberty Square represents the past, the present and the future of Taiwanese seeking liberty.

  Through long and gruesome combat, the Taiwanese people conquered and seized their freedom from the hands of the Japanese colonizers, then conquered a second time and seized it from the hands of a dictatorship. Yet this fight is far from over. Even more challenges wait ahead, in the form of imperialistic nations. The Taiwanese will have to fight for their freedom, and this is their mission. Such combat is unavoidable.

  Many Taiwanese are wise; they have deep emotions and knowledge; they have integrated the ancient wisdom but they are too shy or too modest, sometimes even too self-effacing to think they can innovate; so they let it manifest in a sort of fatalistic way. That's the reason why "combat" would be the second term of the motto. Combat led by artists.

  When it comes to a combative soul, who is more appropriate than the artist to arouse the spirit of a population? As Wassily Kandinsky, who painted the first modern abstract paintings said, the artist has the social mission to refine the human spirit. Living in osmosis with the nature, he/she is inspired by her and feels a deep emotion that makes him/her create a work of art. This work of art transmits a strong spiritual force to those who view it and a strong desire to achieve something good for the community. French painter Gustave Moreau's Prometheus ignites in everybody's heart a strong desire to resist against oppression and achieve something for humanity in spite of the terrible suffering this might bring.

  Born from the interactions between artist and spectator is the last term of the motto, "philanthropy." Famous thinker Zhang Zai (張載) of the Song Dynasty once said "all the people are my fellows and all things are my companions." This phrase represents philanthropy. Indeed, a fight for liberty involves not only oneself or one's family, but also all the people living in Taiwan and the land, mountains and rivers as well. Freedom through combat, philanthropy through freedom: This is the spirit we should embrace.

  Sylvie Allassonniere

  Taipei
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