A collection of memoirs recording participants' oral accounts of the Kaohsiung Incident, the event hailed as the harbinger of Taiwan's democratization, were published yesterday, two days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the incident.
At the launching party of the four books, collectively named Treasuring Formosa -- A True Record of Taiwan's Democratization (珍藏美麗島:台灣民主歷程真紀篡?, Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who sponsored the three-year history writing project, and who was a key leader of the demonstration which led to the incident on December 10, 1979, said: "I feel like a heavy load has been lifted from from my shoulders at last."
Historians at Shih's New Taiwan Foundation interviewed 95 participants of the Kaohsiung Incident, including opposition figures, high-level KMT officials, military personnel, police, intelligence agency officials and eye witnesses.
"Around 600 hours of tapes and transcripts of over six million words were recorded and edited into 650,000 words in four volumes," said Mo Chao-ping (
It is believed to be the first historical research on this scale conducted on any contemporary event in Taiwan. But organizers said that they did not intend to monopolize the right of historical interpretation, as they have been accused of doing by some critics.
"None of us want to control how this historical event is interpreted," Shih said. "I never interfered with what researchers were doing. All I was in charge of was finding the money to pay their wages."
Shih lamented the paranoia that pervades Taiwanese society, manifesting itself in the constant suspicion of the motives of anyone who tries to do something publicly. This was, he said, a residue of mistrust left over from the martial law era. "I hope this mentality will disappear and people will have more confidence in each other," Shih said.
Huang Hui-chun (
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