A student who had campaigned against the Ministry of Education’s controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines was found dead yesterday in an apparent suicide at his family’s residence in New Taipei City.
Dai Lin (林冠華), a member of the Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance, was found dead by emergency workers who were summoned by his mother after her son failed to respond to calls outside his bedroom, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. After police arrived and broke down the door, they saw Lin lying in bed with a pan of charcoal lighted on a nearby desk, in an apparent suicide.
Yesterday was his 20th birthday.
Photo taken from Lin Kuan-hua’s Facebook account
Lin was a second-year student at the continuing studies division of the New Taipei Municipal Juang Jing Vocational High School. He applied for a leave of absence last month so he could devote more time to the anti-curriculum changes campaign.
Lin had been a prominent activist within the Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance. While alliance members refused requests to confirm his exact role, Lin periodically served as one of the group’s spokespeople, with alliance convener Chu Chen (朱震) and other members deferring to him throughout a press conference earlier this month at the Legislative Yuan.
He was among the students who were arrested on Thursday night last week for breaking into the ministry’s compound to protest changes to the curriculum guidelines. Protesters have urged the ministry to withdraw the changes — which are to take effect tomorrow — because of their “China-centric” focus and questionable approval process.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In a final Facebook post, Lin wrote: “Wish me happy birthday. 8 5 12 16. I have only one wish: Minister [of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華)] withdraw the curriculum guidelines.”
Lin’s friends later “decoded” the numbers 8-5-12-16 as corresponding to the letters for “h-e-l-p” in the English alphabet.
New Taipei City Department of Education Commissioner Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said that Dai Lin had suffered from long-term “emotional problems.”
His mother had stayed with him until 2am yesterday, while his school’s military instructor waited nearby, the commissioner said, adding that it was “unfortunate” that Dai Lin had chosen to end his life in the early morning while his family was sleeping.
Juang Jing Vocational High School principal Lin Shu-kuei (林淑貴) was quoted in the Chinese-language United Daily News as saying that Dai Lin had been emotionally unstable since the start of last semester and had received counseling from teachers.
His mother, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, said that Dai Lin had been “depressed” since being released on bail last week for entering the ministry building.
“I very much regret that I was not able to stop this,” she said in a statement, denying that her son had been pressured or threatened by ministry officials.
Separately yesterday, a tearful Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) made public screenshots of a conversation on the messaging app Line, which suggested that Dai Lin had planned his suicide as a way to stop the implementation of the curriculum guidelines.
In the conversation between Dai Lin and a friend on June 1, which Chen displayed at a political commentary show yesterday afternoon, Dai Lin told his friend he had an idea that could “very possibly stop the curriculum guideline adjustments,” adding that he would exercise his plan on July 30.
“When I do it, the media and the public opinion would go crazy about it,” Dai Lin said in the Line conversation.
When his friend asked what he planned to do, he replied: “I cannot say it, there are just some things that you can only do, but not say.”
“Don’t worry. What I am going to do will give you some force to stop the curriculum guideline adjustments,” he added.
The friend replied: “I know what you are going to do,” and “Please don’t die.”
“You think too much,” Dai Lin said.
“Mistakes committed by the government should not be shouldered by students,” Chen, in tears, said after showing the screenshots. “If the Ministry of Education was sincere about communicating with the students, why would this happen?”
Additional reporting by Weng Yu-huang
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS