Tuesday was the anniversary of the martyrdom of freedom advocate Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕). On the morning of April 7, 1989, New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) — acting on orders as then-head of the Taipei City Police Department Criminal Investigation Division — led a team into the offices of Freedom Era Weekly to arrest Deng, who had always supported freedom of thought, a cause he had long before sworn to fight to the very end for.
Rather than allowing himself to be taken into custody, Deng chose self-immolation. He was 42 years old.
Hou was later promoted to head of the National Police Agency during the tenure of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and when New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) took office, Hou was his deputy. Hou has been unstinting in his service of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
During the 1980s, Deng made major contributions to three major political reform movements: The lifting of martial law; the creation of a new constitution; and the establishment of a new nation. Having championed the 228 Justice and Peace Movement and helped to break the spell of the party-state, he had come to be seen as an “activist philosopher.”
By choosing to take his own life, he demonstrated his resolve to pay the ultimate price to keep him from a denial of freedom. His sacrifice was a huge contribution to the development of democracy in Taiwan.
Deng was not a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, but through his Freedom Era Weekly he fought for his idea of a collective of free people.
“I am Deng Nan-jung,” he said, “and I advocate Taiwanese independence” — words that exemplify perfectly his commitment to his vocation.
While he is no longer with us, his spirit lives on. His eulogy says it so well: The flames that engulf shall not destroy.
Last year, Yilan County and Tainan took the lead in designating April 7 as Freedom of Expression Day, organizing various events to illustrate the significance and values of freedom and liberty. This year, Freedom of Expression Day is being extended to other cities and areas, including Kaohsiung, Yunlin County, Taichung, Pingtung County, Chiayi County, Changhua County and Taoyuan. Even more cities and counties are set to designate April 7 as Freedom of Expression Day.
Thought can only blossom when freedom of expression exists, and only when this is allowed to happen is the development of a vibrant culture possible. Freedom of Expression Day has about it the idea of a cultural festival. The events for this year’s Freedom of Expression Day included concerts and lectures on the theme of advocacy.
The concerts were about music’s ability to liberate the body; the lectures about promoting profound introspection; and interwoven into this, the spirit of the Sunflower and Umbrella movements — born of the passion and commitment of young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
During the KMT-imposed Martial Law era, it was the Taiwan Garrison Command that enforced the law, casting a shadow of oppression over the nation. That role is now played by China.
Many artists and people working in the arts live with Beijing looking over their shoulder, finding it difficult to be faithful to themselves in how they express their ideas. In the past, the struggle was to wrest back stolen freedoms; now, it is to protect those freedoms, and make sure they are not stolen again. Different times, different decades, but Taiwan retains a duty to freedom and liberty.
While commemorating Deng’s martyrdom of 26 years ago, we must not forget to continue to march along the path to freedom.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Taiwan has lost Trump. Or so a former State Department official and lobbyist would have us believe. Writing for online outlet Domino Theory in an article titled “How Taiwan lost Trump,” Christian Whiton provides a litany of reasons that the William Lai (賴清德) and Donald Trump administrations have supposedly fallen out — and it’s all Lai’s fault. Although many of Whiton’s claims are misleading or ill-informed, the article is helpfully, if unintentionally, revealing of a key aspect of the MAGA worldview. Whiton complains of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s “inability to understand and relate to the New Right in America.” Many
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month raised its travel alert for China’s Guangdong Province to Level 2 “Alert,” advising travelers to take enhanced precautions amid a chikungunya outbreak in the region. More than 8,000 cases have been reported in the province since June. Chikungunya is caused by the chikungunya virus and transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. These species thrive in warm, humid climates and are also major vectors for dengue, Zika and yellow fever. The disease is characterized by high fever and severe, often incapacitating joint pain.
In nature, there is a group of insects known as parasitoid wasps. Their reproductive process differs entirely from that of ordinary wasps — the female lays her eggs inside or on the bodies of other insects, and, once hatched, the larvae feed on the host’s body. The larvae do not kill the host insect immediately; instead, they carefully avoid vital organs, allowing the host to stay alive until the larvae are fully mature. That living reservoir strategy ensures a stable and fresh source of nutrients for the larvae as they grow. However, the host’s death becomes only a matter of time. The resemblance
Most countries are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with condemnations of militarism and imperialism, and commemoration of the global catastrophe wrought by the war. On the other hand, China is to hold a military parade. According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, Beijing is conducting the military parade in Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 to “mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.” However, during World War II, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had not yet been established. It
RSS