An exhibition that opened on Wednesday in New Taipei City is focusing on the lesser-known stories of women during the White Terror era, a period of political persecution in Taiwan that lasted from 1949 to 1987.
Titled “A Jail Beyond the Prison Walls,” the exhibition features displays such as letters written by political prisoners to their families, and video interviews with White Terror victims, their wives, daughters and sisters. Also on display are photographs, artworks, personal notes and court verdicts, all pertaining to political prisoners during the White Terror era.
“For many years, the discussion on the White Terror era was focused on the political victims themselves — how and why they were imprisoned and their lives after prison — but we cannot exclude the stories of their families if we wish to gain a comprehensive understanding of the collective pain and suffering of our society,” National Human Rights Museum Preparatory Office director Wang Yi-chun (王逸群) said.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
Among the items on display is a seashell painting that political prisoner Tseng Meng-lan (曾夢蘭) made in prison for his daughter Tseng Yu-pin (曾玉霦). The painting features two white cranes on a tree and is signed “from father.”
In a written account, Tseng Yu-pin said her father’s imprisonment had deeply affected her family and her relationships with men.
She once turned down the attentions of a young man because she did not want to get him into trouble, she said.
“Ten years of imprisonment had damaged my father, body and soul. How could he start over again?” she said.
Meanwhile, Ho Ying-hung (何穎紅) spoke of his mother’s enduring love for his father Ho Chuan (何川), a school teacher who was executed during the White Terror period.
“Each year, before the anniversary of my father’s death, my mother would spend over a week writing a letter to him, telling him about our lives and how the children were doing at school,” said Ho Ying-hung, whose father was killed on June 17, 1951.
“If all of those letters had been kept, they would’ve been a great collection of work,” he said.
Last month, the National Human Rights Museum Preparatory Office and Academia Sinica’s Institute of Taiwan History jointly published the oral history collection A Jail Beyond the Prison Walls: Untold Stories by Female Family Members of White Terror Victims.
Through the exhibition and publication, Wang said, he hopes young people can learn more about the painful period in Taiwan’s history and safeguard the country’s hard-won democracy.
“Only if every young person and visitor is willing to understand their own history will these same mistakes be prevented,” he said.
The White Terror refers to the suppression of political dissidents in Taiwan following the 228 Incident, an anti-government uprising in 1947 and the subsequent brutal crackdown by the then-authoritarian regime of the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). During the White Terror period, many people were killed and 140,000 to 200,000 people — many of them intellectuals and social elites — were imprisoned. The White Terror era lasted until the lifting of martial law in Taiwan in 1987. The exhibition will run until Dec. 30 at the Jing-Mei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS