The Ministry of Culture said its planned “Taiwanese Trail of Democracy and Human Rights” project would stand witness to the nation’s ongoing implementation of transitional justice and would also provide future generations with lessons from the past.
The project stems from an initiative Minster of Culture Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) proposed in November last year when, as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker, she said she hoped to emulate the Freedom Trail in Boston and link important historical sites on the path along the development of democracy and human rights in Taiwan.
Cheng’s aides said Cheng has always been interested in the preservation of sites that witnessed the development of Taiwan’s democracy and human rights, and “her dreams will guide the ministry’s policies in years to come [now that she is the minister of culture].”
The ministry said that over the past year, National Democracy and Human Rights Museum staff have been conducting on-site inspections of various historical landmarks, as well as researching historical files and housing records to better understand how sites related to the White Terror era are preserved.
The White Terror era refers to a period of repression that began after the 228 Incident in 1947, when an anti-government uprising was violently suppressed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which later declared martial law and initiated purges.
Historians estimate that between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed during the crackdown.
Ministry officials said the museum is also looking into the geographical location and the history of these sites, as well as asking political victims or local elders the stories of the time. The museum has completed research and investigation for 45 locations.
Twenty-three of the 45 locations were in Taipei, ministry officials said, adding that the ministry would arrange the locations into categories, such as judgment area, transition, serving of sentence, execution squares, sites of historical events, and memorial sites.
Some of the buildings in the areas no longer exist — such as the Dongbenyuan Temple, which was used to interrogate and torture political prisoners, or the Martial Law Detention Center on Qingdao E Road — either due to deterioration or urban renewal projects, the ministry said.
Excluding sites related to the White Terror era that have already been designated as heritage sites or cultural assets, the ministry said it would help local governments register other White Terror-era related areas as cultural assets, such as Taipei’s Huashan Terminal that served as a transport point for political prisoners.
The Liuzhangli Public Cemetery, known as a burial site for many political victims in the White Terror era, last month was designated by the Taipei City Government as a cultural asset, ministry officials said, adding that it is “an important step in preserving historical sites in relation to the fight for human rights.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai