Over the past few years, school after school across the nation has been removing statues of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from their campuses. However, the statue at National Chengchi University is a particularly tricky issue.
Supporters find it reasonable to have a statue of the school’s founder and first president on campus, while opponents approach the issue from the perspective of transitional justice, saying that the university should not have a statue of someone who symbolizes authoritarianism and human rights infringements. For people in the university, the issue of whether to remove the statue is all about how they view Chiang.
A closer look needs to be taken at the differences between how supporters and opponents view the statue. Supporters view Chiang as the almighty generalissimo and chairman of the Military Affairs Commission, who between 1920 and 1945 launched the Northern Expedition, unified the Republic of China and won the eight-year Second Sino-Japanese War.
On the other hand, opponents see him as the one who reorganized the Nationalist Army’s 21st Division and dispatched it to Taiwan; was responsible for the suppression of dissidents and the White Terror; and wrote “why hasn’t this guy been executed?” on a document sentencing someone to a 15-year jail term. In short, the different views of Chiang exist in parallel universes. No wonder there is no agreement.
Facing opponents and supporters living in parallel universes creates a dilemma for the school’s administration. The school should deal with the one remaining statue on campus in a way that requires relatively low administrative cost — keeping the statue in principle, but preparing for the destruction that occurs every year on about Feb. 28 by setting aside a budget for cleaning up and restoring the statue, and by not pressing charges of vandalism or condemning protesting students. This way, opponents can express their opinion, while supporters will be able to preserve the statue.
The key factor in this approach is that the school should provide a proper platform for the two sides to voice their contrasting opinions, rather than immediately condemning protesters and then covering the statue to prevent further damage. When protests broke out in the past, the school’s approach often caused opposition to intensify before it placated the sentiments of one of the sides, and in the end, the school has to pay the price by settling the dispute with greater administrative cost.
The severing of one of the statue’s horse legs by students on Feb. 22 highlights the problems with the old approach. The school thought that repairing the statue would be the end of the matter.
However, on Wednesday last week, the university set up a tempered glass wall around the statue in a bid to prevent vandalism. This is unlikely to protect the statue and more likely to aggravate the opponents’ antipathy toward the school.
The glass barrier once again puts the spotlight on the issue and increases the school’s administrative costs. The university will have to deal with both the statue and opinions from both sides, as well as maintaining the glass barrier.
The university’s dilemma is understandable, and it should not be condemned from a transitional justice perspective. If the school does not want to have to deal with the issue again in the near future, it should take better administrative precautions. The installation of the glass barrier suggests that the university wants to deal with the issue once and for all, and in that case the only solution is to remove the statue.
Hsieh Yi-chen is a student at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan History at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under