On the 24th anniversary of an incident involving the Taiwan Independence Association (TIA), a documentary made by four young people who were born in the 1990s to present the story and show their quest for knowledge of lesser-known history was released yesterday.
“I first learned about the TIA incident when I was reading the memoirs of [veteran Taiwanese independence leader] Su Beng (史明),” Liao Chien-hua (廖建華), director of The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯), said at the film’s premiere in Taipei. “I was actually quite upset that I did not know that Investigation Bureau agents had broken into the student dorm at National Tsing Hua University [NTHU], arrested a student in his dorm room and charged him with sedition after Martial Law was lifted.”
Liao, who was born in 1990 and graduated from NTHU last year, said he used to believe that there had not been any more political persecutions after the Martial Law era ended in 1987. Learning about the TIA incident came as a shock to him, inspiring him to dig more into history and make the film with three other friends, who were also born in the 1990s.
The TIA incident refers to a case in which the Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice arrested four people — NTHU student Liao Wei-chen (廖偉程), Aboriginal rights activist Masao Nikar, political activist Wang Hsiu-hui (王秀惠) and historian Chen Cheng-jen (陳正然) — accused them of having been directed by Tokyo-based TIA founder Su to organize activities for Taiwan independence and charged them with sedition.
According to the now-defunct Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例), the four would receive the death penalty if found guilty.
The arrests triggered student strikes and demonstrations across the nation, including a student-led occupation of the Taipei Railway Station to protest what was seen as the government’s suppression of the freedom of expression.
Pressured, the legislature abolished the Punishment of Rebellion Act nine days later on May 17, 1990, and the four were immediately freed.
Liao Chien-hua said that he and his friends made the film to remind the public about the event.
To get a full picture of what happened, the team interviewed more than 40 people, from the victims, activists and their friends, to former officials, such as then-Investigation Bureau director-general Wu Tung-ming (吳東明) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who was the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general at the time.
However, when the team also requested an interview with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was in power at the time, Lee declined, saying that he did not remember much about the event.
A public screening of the film is to be held next Sunday in the lobby of Taipei Railway Station to coincide with the anniversary of the group’s release, and a student demonstration scene is to be reproduced at the railway station as well.
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