A group of students at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of the 228 Incident by staging an art installation on campus to symbolize a horrific event in Taiwanese history, in hopes that the public can learn from the nation’s past mistakes.
Members of the student organization 02 Group (零貳社) — whose name is a phonetic translation of “protest” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) — in the morning hung up a paper board that read “1947-2012” on the statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) on campus, and around it placed the names of victims of the 228 Massacre.
The 228 Massacre refers to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) bloody crackdown on demonstrators and the local elite under Chiang’s administration. On the evening of Feb. 27, 1947, a woman named Lin Chiang-mai (林江邁), who had been selling contraband cigarettes in Taipei, was beaten by agents from the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, prompting an angry response from bystanders. Known as the 228 Incident, it sparked a nationwide uprising and KMT troops from China were ordered in early March to quell the disturbances and thousands were killed in the ensuing massacre.
Photo courtesy of the 02 Group at National Cheng Kung University
The massacre killed many of Taiwan’s academic elite, members of the student group said, while the shadow of the KMT’s totalitarian repression had yet to fully disappear.
Although a series of events has been held in recent years to commemorate the Incident and ensuing massacre, and the nation’s leaders have also publicly acknowledged the mistakes of the then-KMT government in the brutal crackdown, the massacre remained disregarded in the nation’s history curriculum, they said.
“That is why we are determined to launch a commemorative event this morning,” the students said.
School authorities said in a response that the students were entitled to freely express their opinions as long they could maintain order and did not harm others.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese