The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday condemned vandalism of a bronze statue of Republic of China (ROC) founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in Greater Tainan and called for a rational view of the country’s history.
The 3m-tall statue in Tang Te-chang Memorial Park was pulled down on Saturday by members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, a pro-independence group, to the consternation of KMT city councilors.
The KMT gravely condemns the vandalism, KMT Culture and Communication Committee head Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said in a statement.
Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
“The Democratic Progressive Party-ruled city government’s failure to properly maintain a historic monument and protect cultural assets is regrettable,” Fan Chiang said, calling for restoration of the statue as soon as possible.
Sun established the first democratic country in Asia in 1911 and left a significant legacy of advocacy for democracy, human rights and freedom, Fan Chiang said.
“It’s deeply regrettable that a small group of people have defaced Sun’s statue in a non-democratic action,” he said.
The KMT hopes people will view history in a rational manner and refrain from radical actions that could stir up ethnic conflict and disrupt social harmony, Fan Chiang added.
He was referring to the 228 Massacre, an anti-government uprising in 1947 and subsequent brutal crackdown by the then KMT-led government.
In 1997, the then-Tainan city government converted a historic park into the Tang Te-chang Memorial Park in commemoration of Tang Te-chang (湯德章, 1907-1947), a Tainan resident and lawyer who was executed by Nationalist Army military forces on charges of rebellion during the crackdown.
When Tang was arrested by soldiers, he quickly burned a list of the names of participants in the local Settlement Committee, a move that saved the lives of a number of leading residents and students whose names were on the list.
On Saturday, Sun’s statue in the park was smeared with paint and pulled down by pro-independence advocates, led by Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴).
As Peace Memorial Day on Feb. 28 is drawing near, “we want to take action to show our support for the 228 victims,” Tsay said.
Tsay was arrested for damaging public assets and disrupting public order, but was released after questioning.
The police later decided to send the case to prosecutors.
City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), who is also a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, blasted the city government and police, saying they had allowed “mobs” to topple the statue and he called for its restoration.
Meanwhile, the city government expressed regret over the incident, saying it was not in keeping with the city’s plans to restore historic sites that dated back to the era of Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945.
The local government said its historic architecture and cultural landscape commission is carrying out a study, after which a decision will be made on whether to restore the statue.
The city government had planned to relocate the statue last year, but was forced to put the plan on hold due to strong opposition by KMT politicians and supporters.
Liya Chu (朱如茵), whose parents are New York-based Taiwanese restaurateurs, has been crowned the champion of US television cooking competition MasterChef Junior, after wowing the judges, including celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, with a feast of fusion cuisine. In the finale of the show’s eighth season, broadcast on Thursday, Chu walked away with US$100,000 after serving a spread of spiced duck breast with scallion pancakes and miso eggplant, followed by coconut pandan panna cotta with a passion fruit coulis and sesame tuille. Chu, who was 10 years old at the time of filming three years ago, faced off against then-11-year-old Grayson Price from
A university student has gained the spotlight for an interactive map he designed detailing all of China’s military bases and installations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Soochow University music student Joseph Wen (溫約瑟), who calls himself an amateur military enthusiast, said he created the map to “help people better understand the cross-strait situation.” Wen originally posted the map online on June 14 last year, but it gained greater attention after he mentioned it during an appearance on a China Television talk show. On the show, Wen said he had gathered information on the locations from publicly available Web sites, as
GLOBAL STRATEGY: Indo-Pacific alliances need reinforcement to prevent Chinese occupation of Taiwan, which would threaten Japan, Hawaii and Australia, Pompeo said The US should officially recognize Taiwan as a free, independent nation and establish official diplomatic ties, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Friday. Every US president since Harry Truman has considered Taiwan’s existence to be of utmost importance to US national security, Pompeo said. Taiwan is a principal US partner in technology and economic matters, and if China were to capture Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, it would severely hamper the US economy, Pompeo said. Should China occupy Taiwan, it would severely weaken US influence in the Indo-Pacific region and its surrounding areas,
Opening-day ticket sales for a horror exhibition at the Tainan Art Museum were suspended twice on Saturday as the show attracted too many visitors. Titled “Ghosts and Hells: The Underworld in Asian art,” the exhibition runs until Oct. 16. It is the local version of a show that debuted at the Musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris. It was planned and curated by Julien Rousseau. The Tainan museum said that within an hour of its doors opening, more than 1,000 people had entered the exhibition. By noon, 3,000 physical and virtual tickets had been sold, while the museum had more than 4,000
RSS