The media have focused their attention on calligraphy scrolls written by Republic of China “founding father” Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) that are kept at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Only three of the scrolls are authentic — the others are replicas. Most of Sun’s belongings are in the hands of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and pre-1949 KMT archives, including calligraphy scrolls and other valuable items, that are kept at the KMT Party History Institute (黨史館) in Taipei.
The history of the KMT is inseparable from the development of the ROC. Under the party-state, party decisions were crucial to political development. This is why historians both in Taiwan and abroad are interested in KMT archives and materials that are stored at the institute.
For historical and political reasons, many files and documents from the party-state era are kept at the institute, which is run by the KMT Culture and Communications Committee (文傳會).
The institute is understaffed and lacks storage space, and as a result, the archives have not been opened to the public. The party needs to cover both personnel and storage costs. It is unfortunate that the documents are not accessible by the public and are not published online.
The institute falls under party jurisdiction. As it is considered a civil body, its management is not regulated by the Freedom of Government Information Act (政府資訊公開法) or the Archives Act (檔案法). This means that the decision publicize documents is an internal party affair that is neither externally monitored nor restricted, and the documents are unlikely to be accessible by the general public.
People have been hoping that KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) could reform the party since she was elected party leader last month.
Both the ruling and the opposition parties are now focusing on the KMT’s handling of its ill-gotten assets.
Perhaps Hung should display her resolve by taking the initiative to transfer all pre-1949 KMT archives and documents related to Sun to the National Archives Administration (檔案管理局). If the documents were handed over to state ownership, the public would have access to them.
Documents related to KMT staff, budgetary and privacy issues can remain as party property.
Archives from before the KMT’s flight to Taiwan are more than 60 years old. If the party transferred them to national archives, the administration might be able to organize and file the documents and open them to the public. If the KMT were to transfer these documents, it might give the public a new understanding of the party.
Hsueh Li-kuei is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Library, Information and Archival Studies at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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