The National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) earlier this week voted to remove a bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from its campus and to relocate the structure to an indoor location.
The move came after protests led by students earlier this year.
At a school affairs meeting on Wednesday, more than half of those present voted to relocate the statue — currently located nearby Cheng Kung Lake (成功湖) on the campus — to the university’s archive. The relocation is slated to take place early next year.
Photo: Meng Ching-tzu, Taipei Times
An official from the university was quoted as saying that “the statue is part of history. There is no need to destroy it, otherwise these pieces of history won’t be found in the future.”
On Feb. 28 this year, a group of NCKU students marked the 65th anniversary of the 228 Incident by staging an art installation on campus to symbolize the horrific and brutal moment in Taiwanese history in the hope of raising public awareness about the nation’s past mistakes.
Members of the student organization 02 Group (零貳社) — whose name is a phonetic translation of “protest” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) — hung a placard reading “1947-2012” on the statue and placed the names of victims of the 228 Massacre around the statue.
The 228 Incident refers to a massacre that sparked a massive 1947 nationwide uprising against the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime. The uprising was brutally crushed in a violent crackdown spearheaded by the state. That tragic event also marked the beginning of the White Terror era that saw thousands of people arrested, imprisoned and executed.
The students’ art installation this February stirred heated debate at the university about whether the statue should be removed.
Chen Yi-chen (陳以箴), head of the 02 Group, said the school’s decision to move the statue is a major breakthrough.
“This is just the beginning. We should dismantle all the symbols of authoritarian rule which still exist on campus,” she said.
She added that the university is treating the decision as a simple act of relocating a statue and is unwilling to consider the wider issues of authoritarianism on campus.
“Our university is quite conservative. In classrooms, administration facilities, in the interactions between faculty and students there are still leftovers of a past authoritarian mentality. Such a mentality needs be removed,” she said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS