After being accused of perpetrating “revisionist history” by failing to cite the efforts made by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) mayoralty in Taipei to preserve the 44 South Village (四四南村), the Taipei City Government’s Department of Civil Affairs on Tuesday said it plans to revise the background information at the military residential compound to reflect its history more accurately.
The structure is the first military residential compound built in Taiwan after World War II and sits next to Taipei 101 in the now upscale Xinyi District (信義).
Last month, visitors and historians touring the compound discovered that the Chen administration’s efforts to turn the compound into a “living museum” during his stint as Taipei mayor from 1994 to 1998 were not mentioned at the site’s historical document exhibition hall.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chang Ching-sen (張景森), former vice chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, was disconcerted by the finding and asked in a Facebook post: “Why do these waisheng (外省) politicos want to cover up this fact?”
Waisheng refers to those who fled China with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after 1949.
“It is lucky that we are still alive to tell this story. The village was nearly demolished in 1998. It was saved and renovated at the insistence of Chen’s city government to become the nation’s first preserved military dependency village,” wrote Chang, who led the city’s Economic Development Bureau under Chen.
“There was a man surnamed Fei (費) who said the project was an attempt to humiliate Mainlanders. At the time, Chen wanted to foster mutual understanding between ethnic groups, so he asked me to hold a dialogue with the leaders of mainlander groups. We were able to get their endorsement and support for the project,” Chang said.
“Regretfully, history is written by the ruling regime. Chen made the decision to save the village, but his contribution is absent from in all the exhibition materials,” he added.
Department director Huang Lu Ching-ju (黃呂錦茹) said that since taking up her post, she has not seen any documents or materials related to the Chen government’s work on the 44 South Village.
“The information I have seen indicated that the preservation project was launched during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) tenure as Taipei mayor. I asked other long-serving city officials about this issue and none of them were aware that Chen had started the project. We simply used the information available to provide a historical background of the compound. There were no ulterior motives,” she said.
Unconvinced, a group of bipartisan city councilors made a request at a recent Taipei City Council meeting that the city government replace the exhibition text at the compound with one that accurately represents its history.
The department on Tuesday said that according to the most recently retrieved files, the earliest 44 South Village preservation initiative took place in 1997, according to an official document dispatched to the Taipei City Urban Planning Committee.
Since the document pertains to the time when Chen was mayor, officials said it and other files confirm his administration’s conservation work on the military compound.
Tropical depression TD22, which was over waters south of the Ryukyu Islands, is likely to develop into a tropical storm by this morning and pose a significant threat to Taiwan next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The depression is likely to strengthen into a tropical storm named Krathon as it moves south and then veers north toward waters off Taiwan’s eastern coast, CWA forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said. Given the favorable environmental conditions for its development, TD22’s intensity would reach at least typhoon levels, Hsu said. As of 2pm yesterday, the tropical depression was about 610km east-southeast of Taiwan proper’s
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
Typhoon Krathon, a military airshow and rehearsals for Double Ten National Day celebrations might disrupt flights at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in the first 10 days of next month, the airport’s operator said yesterday. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a statement that it has established a response center after the Central Weather Administration issued a sea warning for Krathon, and urged passengers to remain alert to the possibility of disruptions caused by the storm in the coming days. Flight schedules might also change while the air force conducts rehearsals and holds a final airshow for Double Ten National Day, it added. Although
SEMICONDUCTORS: TSMC is able to produce 2-nanometer chips and mass production is expected to be launched by next year, the company said In leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing China is behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) by at least 10 years as the Taiwanese chipmaker’s manufacturing process has progressed to 2 nanometers, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee when asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) about a report published in August by the Chinese version of Nikkei Asia that said Taiwan’s lead over China in chip manufacturing was only three years. She asked Wu Cheng-wen if the report was an accurate
RSS