Friends and supporters on Wednesday gathered in Taipei to celebrate the launch of documentary Su Beng (史明) — the Revolutionist (革命進行式), which is set to be released in theaters across the nation next month.
The film’s protagonist, 97-year-old Su Beng, was flanked by two important backers of the project, director Chen Lihkuei (陳麗貴) and a former head of the now-defunct Government Information Office (GIO), Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) who produced the film.
Often described as the spiritual father of the Taiwan independence movement, Su was a revolutionary leader who went to China to fight with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) troops against Japan in the 1940s.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
On his return to Taiwan, he tried to rally Taiwanese against Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). Wanted by the Chiang regime, he fled to Japan in 1952 where he stayed after being granted political asylum.
While in Japan, Su ran a noodle shop in Tokyo and also established several Taiwanese revolutionary organizations, while completing his highly influential book, Taiwan’s 400-Year History (台灣人四百年史).
Blacklisted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime for more than four decades, Su was only able to return to Taiwan in 1993 after martial law was abolished.
Highly respected in Taiwan nationalism circles, Su still leads the Association for Taiwan Independence (獨立台灣會).
Yao said that the film, which chronicles the struggles and revolutionary ideals of Su, announced it would premiere in theaters on Feb. 26, in time for 228 memorial day activities.
“When I was head of the GIO in 2005, I had this project in mind, to make movies and television programs about the real heroes of Taiwan, those who made great contributions to our country. Su Beng was at the top of the list,” Yao said. “This film is a realization of that dream. We will follow it up with projects on other Taiwanese heroes. Our next project will focus on Professor Peng Ming-min (彭明敏).”
Chen said that Su’s life was packed with fascinating adventures and incredible stories.
“However, the project has been a tremendous challenge for me as a filmmaker. Many of the documents, papers and photographs of his revolutionary odyssey, especially the secret underground activities and military campaigns, were lost or destroyed. So we had to use different means to bring out that period of his lifetime,” Chen said.
Chen said the film also revealed for the first time the love of Su’s life, a Japanese woman named Hiraga, whom he met in the 1950s during exile in Japan.
The trailer can be seen on YouTube and there a Facebook page has been set up: www.facebook.com/subengmovie.
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:
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
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater