Historians on Saturday called on the Hsinchu County Government to designate an etched rock at Emei Elementary School in Hsinchu County as a historical artifact, saying that the 91-year-old anniversary marker has important historical value.
The monument was set up in 1928 for the school’s 30th anniversary, but had been left untended until it was rediscovered 20 years ago, covered in moss and weeds.
The Hsinchu County Bureau of Cultural Affairs said the stone monument was inspected about 10 years ago, while its Cultural Heritage Division makes non-scheduled visits to check its condition from time to time and the school does a good job of preserving it.
Photo: Liao Hsieh-ju, Taipei Times
The division said that requests to designate it as a historical monument would be reviewed in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法).
At the school’s 120th anniversary in October last year, Chiang Hsin-chi (姜信淇), a retired former principal of the school, said he found a photograph of the monument while preparing for the school’s 100th anniversary in 1998.
None of the teachers knew about the monument at the time, he said.
He found the monument among bushes and weeds on a hill within the school grounds, and elderly residents told him that it was erected in 1928 during the Japanese colonial period to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the school’s establishment, as well as commemorate its founding principal, Ujiie Teiji, and a teacher, Chiang said.
The teacher, Sung Ching (宋進), was memorialized because he brought more than 30 students from a private school he previously ran to Emei, boosting its low student numbers, Chiang said.
Records showed that when Taiwan lost its UN seat in 1971, Taipei developed animosity over Japan’s recognition of Beijing as the sole seat of the Chinese government, so it ordered that all monuments or public facilities that portrayed “the superiority of Japanese imperialism” should be eliminated, he said.
The Emei monument might have survived because the weeds covered it and it had been forgotten for many years, he said.
The stone monument was toppled in the 1960s due to vibrations from work by Taiwan Water Corp on a nearby plant, Chiang said.
Restoring the monument was coordinated by alumnus Yang Mu-huo (楊木火), who worked for the utility at the time, but a portion of the monument was destroyed in the process, Chiang said.
A platform for a flag pole and stone steps are near the monument, suggesting that the site could have been used for morning devotionals to the Japanese emperor of the time, Chiang said, adding that its location in the eastern section of the grounds supported this idea.
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