A number of events are to be held across the nation over the next few weeks to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the 228 Incident, an anti-government uprising and subsequent brutal crackdown that occurred in 1947.
Two memorial services will be held at the 228 Peace Memorial Park in Taipei on Saturday, while music performances will staged at the plaza in front of the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum every day from today to Saturday, the 228 Memorial Foundation said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are scheduled to attend one of the memorial services, which will include a concert to commemorate the victims and their families, the Taiwan Nation Alliance said.
For the third consecutive year, university students will stage music and theater performances at Liberty Square in front of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, alongside exhibitions and accounts of the event by academics and victims and their families.
In Chiayi, a memorial service and a concert are planned for tomorrow. An exhibition of images and documents from the Incident will also open tomorrow and run until March 22 at the Chiayi 228 Memorial Park Museum.
Other memorial services will be held in Kaohsiung, New Taipei City, Taichung, Tainan, Greater Taoyuan, Pingtung and Yunlin on Saturday and in Keelung on March 8.
“228 is not a three-day holiday for people to go out and travel,” Lin Wei-lien (林偉聯), a pastor and officer of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and a member of the Taiwan Nation Alliance, said yesterday at a press conference at which the events were announced.
He said he hopes the memorial services and exhibitions will educate young people and children about the Incident and help to ensure that such a tragedy does not occur again in Taiwan.
Although the government has apologized many times, it is still unclear who should be held accountable for the massacre and how many people died during that period, according to Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元), director of National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History and the Taiwan 228 Care Association.
The official documents show discrepancies regarding the whereabouts of some people, he added.
“Forgiveness is only possible when the truth has been uncovered and the lessons of history have been learned,” said Hsueh, calling for more research to shed light on the Incident.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of Taiwanese, many of them members of the intellectual elite, were killed during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s crackdown on the uprising, which began on Feb. 28, 1947, 16 months after Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan ended.
The crackdown was prelude to nearly four decades of martial law.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all