Next year’s 60th anniversary of the retreat of 28,000 Nationalist troops and civilians from the Dachen Archipelago to Taiwan is to be marked by an exhibition organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Central News Agency.
The images on show from tomorrow until July 16 at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei offer the public a rare glimpse into the years following the Chinese Civil War.
On Jan. 18, 1955, Chinese communist forces attacked the islands of Yijiangshan, north of the Dachen group, off the coast of China’s Zhejiang Province.
Under General Wang Sheng-ming (王生明), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces lost control of the islands, leaving the Dachen Islands vulnerable to attack, the ministry said.
In February of that same year, Nationalist forces withdrew from the Dachen Islands to Taiwan.
The retreat was executed with assistance from the US Seventh Fleet, which oversaw the withdrawal of troops and civilian refugees from Dachen to Keelung, the ministry added.
These refugees later resumed their trades as fishermen, farmers, artisans and merchants, and relocated to other parts of the nation, such as Yilan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, it said.
The people of Dachen carried with them memories of their old lives, but after a period of adjustment and integration, they finally settled down, weaving the fabric of their own backgrounds into Taiwanese society and adding to the country’s cultural diversity, according to the ministry.
The exhibition focuses on three main aspects: the defense of Dachen, the retreat and resettlement in Taiwan.
There are also to be a series of displays covering six aspects of the lives of the Dachen community, before and after their move to Taiwan.
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