The diaries of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) are expected to be published in Taiwan next year, a relative of the Chiang family revealed in a recent interview with a newspaper in China.
Soong Tsao Li-hsuan (宋曹琍璿), the wife of a nephew of the late Soong Mayling (宋美齡), told the Shanghai Morning Post on Thursday that the collection included 55 volumes covering the period from 1917 to 1972.
While most of the diaries’ content will go to print, a small number of passages that the family has decided to keep private will be left out, Soong Tsao said.
However, the family has authorized that the redacted passages can be published in 2035, she said.
Soong Tsao, who has been helping to screen the diaries at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where the original copies are deposited, was in Shanghai to attend a symposium held by Fudan University on the life of Soong Tzu-wen (宋子文), a brother of Soong Mayling who served as finance minister and foreign affairs minister of the Republic of China.
Soong Tsao said Chiang, who died in 1975, left his diaries to his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who in turn passed them to his third son, Chiang Hsiao-yung (蔣孝勇), before his death in 1988.
Chiang Hsiao-yung kept the diaries until his own death in 1996, after which his widow, Chiang Fang Chi-yi (蔣方智怡), took over the job of looking after them, Soong Tsao said.
In 2004, however, she decided to send the documents to the Hoover Institution for preservation, Soong Tsao said.
The diaries, which were written using a calligraphy pen, were in poor condition when they arrived at the institution, with many pages stuck together, Soong Tsao said.
The institution spent around two years and approximately US$3 million to sort out the papers.
Copies of the originals, with some redacted passages, have been made available at the Hoover Archives in various batches since 2006, attracting a large number of academics from different countries.
However, as readers are forbidden from making copies and can only take notes, some of the academics have made mistakes in reference to the diaries, causing confusion of historical facts, Soong Tsao said.
In light of this situation, the Chiang family agreed to publish the diaries to ensure a truthful presentation of history, Soong Tsao said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS