More than 100 people gathered yesterday evening at National Taiwan University (NTU) in memory of former Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) assistant professor Chen Wen-cheng (陳文成), whose death 30 years ago remains a mystery to this day.
Chen, a graduate of NTU’s Department of Mathematics, went to study in the US and later became an assistant professor at CMU’s Department of Statistics.
He was called by the Taiwan Garrison Command — a military state security agency during the Martial Law era — for interrogation on July 2, 1981, when he returned to Taiwan to visit his family, because of his support for the pro-democracy movement.
Photo: George Tsormg,Taipei Times
On the morning of July 3, 1981, Chen’s body was discovered next to a library on the NTU campus and it was unclear whether his body was deliberately placed there to appear as though he had committed suicide or fallen off the building by accident.
The Garrison Command said they released Chen after the interrogation and that they had nothing to do with his death.
Thirty years later, what really happened that night remains a mystery.
“I am really thankful that so many of you students came out tonight to remember my brother and what happened 30 years ago,” Chen’s elder sister, Chen Pao-yueh (陳寶月), told the gathering of NTU students, friends and family members at the site where Chen’s body was found.
A documentary on Chen was also shown at the service.
“Some people may think what happened to my brother has nothing to do with them. Well, if no one pays attention to such things, one day, what happened to my brother may happen to you too, and by that time, you would regret that you didn’t care enough earlier,” she said.
She criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party for “not admitting to the bad things they have done,” and said that, at the age of 60, the only thing she cares about now is discovering the truth about Chen Wen-cheng’s death.
“[Chen Wen-cheng’s death] is something big that has happened on our campus. He was an NTU graduate as well, but the school never paid much attention to it and most of students don’t know about it, and we think this is not right,” said Lin Hsin-yeh (林欣曄), president of the NTU Graduate Student Association. “This is why we’ve organized this event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Chen Wen-cheng’s death.”
She said the association, as well the undergraduate student organization NTU Student Association, would not only like more of their classmates to know about Chen Wen-cheng’s story, but also called on the school to erect an official memorial for him on the site where his body was discovered, and to record Chen Wen-cheng’s story into the school’s history.
The students made their own miniature memorial and placed it on the site where Chen Wen-cheng’s body was discovered, hoping that there would be an official one next year.
In addition to the on-campus memorial event, the Chen Wen-cheng Memorial Foundation will organize a concert in his memory tomorrow at 7:30pm at the Civil Service Development Institute in Taipei.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS