Taipei City's Bureau of Cultural Affairs yesterday launched a series of memorial activities for the annual commemoration of the 228 Incident, including a 228 Film Festival featuring movies depicting the relationships between local Taiwanese people and Chinese mainlanders.
This year's film festival, titled "From Confrontation to Integration" will display six movies made between 1950 and 2000 that track the development of Taiwan society in and around the time of the 228 Incident.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THEBUREAU OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
The 228 Incident refers to a brutal military crackdown in 1947 on civilians protesting the corrupt administration of Chen Yi (陳儀), a Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) appointed governor sent to assist in the rebuilding of Taiwan after World War II.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Taipei City Deputy Mayor Pai Hsiu-hsiung (白秀雄), also the acting chief of the cultural affairs bureau, yesterday said, "It is important that we remember the pain of the tragedies, but it is more important that we learn to move forward."
Writer Bo Yang (柏楊), a mainlander who fled with the Nationalist troops in 1949 to Taiwan and later became a political dissident during the White Terror era of the KMT administration, yesterday said as someone from the Chinese mainland, he felt extremely sorry for the Taiwanese victims persecuted in the 228 Incident.
"When the 228 Incident broke out, I was still in Shenyang City [in northeastern China]," Bo said. "I remember a local magazine report that said the Americans were being kind to the Japanese because they only dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. The Taiwanese, on the other hand, were more misfortunate; they were given a KMT government."
However, Bo added, "After more than half a century it is time to forget the hate and embrace harmony."
"Marriages between Taiwanese and mainlanders are common in society now. If love can help people bridge their differences, why can't hatred be forgiven," Bo said.
Veteran filmmakers Lee Hsing (李行), Lin Fu-di (林福地), Tseng Chung-ying (曾仲影), Hsin Chi (辛奇) and veteran photographer Lin Tsan-ting (林贊庭) also took part in the press conference and discussed the images of the conflicts and ethnic integration illuminated in their early works that showed Taiwanese society living under the yoke of authoritarian rule.
Lee Hsin, who came to Taiwan with the KMT government in 1949, said, "During the past 50 years, I have dedicated my film-making career to matters concerning Taiwan, and many of them are about the interaction between the local Taiwanese and mainlanders."
"The lives of Taiwanese and mainlanders are so intertwined that we must not aggravate the division between them, but should seek harmony and tolerance in order to strive for the prosperity of Taiwan," Lee said.
Lin Fu-di, who was born in Taiwan during the Japanese colonization and was in hiding at the time of the 228 Incident, said, "The 228 Incident happened because the Taiwanese people could not accept the reality that the so-called mother country was corrupt and impoverished."
"It was a historical tragedy. Both Taiwanese and mainlanders were killed during the unrest," Lin said.
"We must move forward instead of lamenting the past," Lin said.
The six films to be exhibited in the 228 Film Festival include Making Peace Between Families, Descendants of the Yellow Emperor, March of Happiness, Love Song in the Tea Field, Our Neighbors and Sweet Home.
The films, all featuring environments and situations in which conflict occurred constantly between local Taiwanese and mainlanders, depict the process of how those conflicts were smoothed out and agreements reached.
The films will run at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum starting every Friday and Saturday at 7pm from Feb. 28 to March 15. On Feb. 27, there will a memorial concert held at the museum in the evening. First lady Wu Shu-chen (
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