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Soong Mayling's home in spotlight

"Tourists were disappointed not being able to see the room that Madame Chiang had lived in."

Lin Chi-sheng, chairman of the Association of Promoting Cultural Preservation

Demand to open the main room of Soong Mayling's (蔣宋美齡) official residence in Shihlin has intensified in the wake of the former first lady's death last month,

Members of the Association of Promoting Cultural Preservation (原貌文化協會) gathered yesterday at the Shihlin Official Residence, the former home of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Soong, who is also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, to ask Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to open up the Chiangs' main room.

A small group of protesters waved placards and shouted slogans before fighting with police. The protesters were later expelled from the residence's grounds.

The association took their fight to the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs on Tuesday, displaying a petition bearing nearly 40,000 signatures on the square outside city hall.

Association chairman Lin Chi-sheng (林啟生) said that the association's voluntary tour guides of the official residence had received many complaints from visitors about the off-limits main room.

"Tourists were disappointed not being able to see the room that Madame Chiang had lived in," Lin said, adding that the room was not supposed to be regarded as a "forbidden place" because Martial Law had been lifted.

Ma yesterday promised to process the arrangements and procedures to open up the room as soon as possible.

But Ma said that three prerequisites needed to be settled before the public would be allowed in.

"The city government has to finish repair work on the official residence and make a complete inventory of the items of cultural significance in the room. Most importantly, we have to receive the renovation plan submitted by the Presidential Office, which is in charge of the maintenance of the mansion," Ma said.

Built in 1950, the two-story mansion in the Shihlin Official Residence was the second official residence for the Chiangs -- after they retreated to Taiwan from China in 1949 with the Chinese Nationalist Party's armed forces following their loss to the communists in the civil war.

The Chiangs lived there for 26 years before Chiang's death in 1975.

The Chiangs' residence, including the outer and middle gardens in front of the building but excluding the main room, was eventually unveiled to the public in 1996 when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) served as Taipei mayor.

On April 2000, the Cultural Affairs Bureau designated the mansion as the city's 93rd municipal heritage site.

According to Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩), officials from the Presidential Office have contacted the bureau and said an announcement on the opening of the main room will be made in two weeks.
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