With bowed heads and teary eyes, descendants of the victims in the Taiping steamer shipwreck 60 years ago appealed to the government yesterday to pay more respect to the incident by designating a national holiday to commemorate the tragedy.
More than 1,000 people, including the father of forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺), died when the vessel — with a capacity of only 580 passengers — sunk off the coast of Shanghai, China, after colliding with a small cargo ship on a dark night in 1949.
Only 36 people were rescued and the bodies of the victims were never found.
PHOTO: LU HSIEN-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES
The journey was part of the massive wave of Chinese emigration to Taiwan after it became clear the Chinese Communist Party was winning the civil war against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“The passengers came from different places in China but had the same dream, which was to escape the claws of the communist regime and build up a home of prosperity and cultures,” said Sun Mu-shan (孫木山), 76, who sailed across the Taiwan Strait on the Taiping’s third journey.
His friends and relatives, however, were not so blessed when they boarded the Taiping the fourth and last time it embarked from a Shanghai berth.
Sun, holding pink lilies, was one of 13 people who gathered around a small white monument yesterday to pay tribute to the victims. The 2m monument is tucked away in a corner of a Keelung Harbor naval base.
Naval Warfare Division Director Lin Wen-chao (林溫超) said visitors, including family members, must receive approval before being permitted to see the monument because of its location inside the naval compound.
For many years, the families of the victims have pleaded with the government to erect a more appropriate memorial — with the names of the victims and the story of Taiping engraved onto it — in remembrance of the immigrants’ sacrifice.
“This is a crucial chapter in the history of Taiwan. Our posterity needs to know the hardships earlier settlers had to endure to make Taiwan what it is today. There should be a bipartisan effort to raise public awareness of the sacrifice of the early immigrants,” said Yang Chang-cheng (楊長鎮), director of the Deng Liberty Foundation, calling for a national day to be designated to teach more people about the Taiping and the era, which he dubs the “great migration” in Chinese history.
Chang Ho-ping (張和平), the daughter of a victim, suggested the descendants retrace the journey and perform Buddhist rituals to call the spirits of victims home.
The Taiping is often likened to the Mayflower, which transported many English separatists in 1620 to settle the New World in what is now the US.
A 20-episode TV drama based on the shipwreck is in production and is expected to be released later this year. Oscar-winning Hong Kong-born director John Woo (吳宇森) is also shooting a love story inspired by the event.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by