The Taiwan National Treasure initiative, which aims to create an online archive of official US documents about Taiwan, is up and running.
The Web site, www.nationaltreasure.tw, was launched on Sept. 11.
The materials obtained from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) construct a history of Taiwan from a US perspective, project coleader Lin Yu-cheng (林育正) said on Tuesday.
They enable Taiwanese readers to view themselves from a different vantage point and challenge historical narratives created by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during its rule, Lin said.
“We hope the project can help Taiwan create its own national identity,” he said.
The project was launched in September last year by Lin, tech entrepreneur Hsiao Hsin-cheng (蕭新晟) and State University of New York Downstate Medical Center assistant research professor Abraham Chuang (莊士杰).
The program crowd-sources volunteers to scan NARA documents about Taiwan and displays them on an open-access online collection, they said.
The volunteers have come across a myriad of materials, including declassified CIA documents, which include the agency’s communications with agents in Taiwan, economic surveys, interviews with writers of the nativist literature movement and assessments of public opinion in Taiwan, they said.
Hsiao, who designed the Web site, said he hopes it will provide an outside perspective on the history of Taiwan that might disentangle polarized historical debates.
The initiative will contribute to the nation’s formation of a national identity by giving the public an opportunity to objectively view Taiwan’s history, he said.
“NARA has about 60 million documents that are relevant to Taiwan and just 16,000 of them have been processed, so there is a long way to go,” Hsiao said. “In the future, we hope to work on the archives of former colonizers like Japan and the Netherlands.”
Looking at the nation’s history through the lens of US officials poked holes in the KMT’s official narrative, Lin said.
Making US documents available to the public will allow the average citizen to interrogate primary sources and search for historical truths, he added.
“I believe the initiative will be a major contribution to the formation of a new Taiwanese consensus and identity,” Lin said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS