Removing Chiang’s statues
When discussing the future of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) statues around the nation, it is necessary to first ask want kind of memories we want to leave for the coming generations.
A statue is a statement of values, as it pointedly tells people what they should remember. It is often about honor and an intent to shape identity, and political statues are overloaded with political implications.
Furthermore, Chiang was a dictator and a butcher, and most of the Chiang statues that can be found spread across the nation were put up on the orders of Chiang himself and of his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), with the intent of creating leader worship.
Suddenly treating these statues as worldly works of art as if one were making a joke of these spaces and symbols that were created deliberately, and carry a sacred significance is an act of ridicule and a show of ignorance of history.
What we need is a society with a sense of history; what we need is memories, to remember and not to forget.
Chiang Kai-shek is a controversial person in Taiwanese society, and the presence of his statues is a cause of social division: It is something that should be removed, in particular from school campuses.
A similar example is what is going on at Columbia University, where students are calling for the removal of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US and one of the signatories of the US constitution.
The reason for the calls is Jefferson’s racial prejudice and slave ownership. There are even radicals who want to remove statues of George Washington for similar reasons.
It must not be forgotten that these statues where erected by later generations, and that racial prejudice and slavery was still common at the time. During the time they lived, human rights began to develop and spread, and it must not be compared to the slaughter that took place during the mid-20th century.
However, this observation is not intended as a defense, because even if their actions violated the values that we recognize today, or infringed on the rights, lives or property of some people, this is something that we still must face head-on.
It is important that our society recognizes its past, but that does not in any way mean that “he” must continue to be present, as it will only transform him into an ever-present “deity.” Instead, we could set up other relevant monuments or art installations.
The monument format is in itself problematic, as it implies excessive conceptualization and abstraction, and downplays pain and hardship.
However, it is at least a more appropriate approach than the current statues, and it would also be a process of re-remembering.
The act of removing the statues in itself is not a theatrical protest by students acting and imitating the revolutionaries of the French Revolution or during the 1968 student uprising in France as French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist Raymond Aron accused it of being.
The goal in Taiwan is to achieve substantive justice and bringing the nation to a place where there will be no more division.
Hsu Hsiang-pi
Taipei
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