When the documentary Searching for the Silent Mother of the 228 Incident -- Lin Chiang-mai (尋找二二八的沈默母親林江邁) was released in December, Juan Mei-shu (阮美姝) -- a relative of one of the incident's victims -- was dumbfounded.
The documentary, sponsored by Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs during former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
Textbooks largely agree that the 228 Incident was sparked by a conflict between anti-contraband officers and locals as the officers tried to confiscate Lin Chiang-mai's black-market cigarettes.
In the documentary, Lin Ming-chu, who claims she was present when the conflict took place, says it was the result of a simple misunderstanding. She says the locals, most of whom spoke Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), thought one of the Mandarin-speaking officers was refusing to pay for his tobacco.
Juan, however, who lost her father in in the incident, feels that Lin Ming-chu's account is an attempt to rewrite history.
"The content of the documentary and the brochure that accompanies it is completely contrary to what Lin Ming-chu and [her uncle] Lin Pao-lo (
This was the second press conference Juan has held to criticize the documentary since she declared her "retirement" from 228 Incident research in June.
The first press conference was held at the legislature last month, but did not attract too much media attention. This time, Juan decided to take members of the media on a trip down memory lane.
Although the Tien Ma Tea Room (
Seventy-five-year-old Wang, who flew back from the US for the press conference, said he was selling cigarettes next to Lin when the conflict took place.
Wang said that he saw an anti-contraband police officer hit Lin Chiang-mai on the head with his gun after struggling to take some cigarettes from her.
Wang added that he had not seen Lin Ming-chu at the scene and doubted that she knew what had actually happened.
Huang Shou-li (
Wang Yi-chun (
"People have different interpretations of history. Our documentary chronicles Lin and her daughters' involvement in the 228 Incident and how it affected their lives," Wang Yi-chun said.
Hsieh Ying-tseng (
The department had made the documentary so as to preserve the historical record, he said, adding that whether the narrative matches the historical facts should be left to historians to verify.
However, this explanation did not satisfy Juan or her supporters.
"In terms of historical research, memories of the people who were at the scene should be regarded as primary materials. [Making a documentary based on] indirect report from others [who were not present] may contribute to unnecessary misunderstanding [about the event]," said Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元), a professor of Taiwanese history at National Chengchi University.
Juan said the documentary glossed over pre-existing public dissatisfaction with the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government before the incident occurred.
"A discourse without context cannot serve as evidence to explain a historical event. We cannot avoid talking about the real reason why the incident happened if we would like to portray the real story behind Lin Chiang-mai," Juan said.
"If we lack the courage to face history, we will only blur the face of the real Lin Chiang-mai. This in turn makes the documentary a fabrication," she said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not