A documentary film that highlights former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) role in Taiwan's democratization was released yesterday. The film lauds Lee for being the key figure who navigated the nation through the transformation from a totalitarian to a democratic country.
The documentary film was produced by Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), former vice chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs, and directed by documentary filmmaker Chen Li-kuei (陳麗貴). Wu is now a professor of Taiwanese history at National Taiwan University.
Many pro-independence leaders, including Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (
The film described the development of Taiwan's democracy and Lee's political career, and reveals little-known historical documents marking Taiwan's changing domestic politics and international situation.
Although the documentary was originally called Lee Teng-hui and the Road to Taiwan's Democratization, Chen said yesterday that Lee had requested that his name be taken out of the title after watching the film.
"Former president Lee thinks that the achievements of Taiwan's democratization were the fruit of hard work by all the people of Taiwan, not only himself," Chen said.
"I hope this documentary will evoke the honor and pride deep in the minds of all Taiwanese, and make people think about how we gained today's freedom and democracy," Chen added.
The documentary will be first broadcast on TTV (
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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