The government should rename roads that are named after former presidents, symbolize authoritarianism or are out of touch with modern Taiwanese identity, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party said yesterday.
The three most common road names in Taiwan are Jhongshan (中山), Jhongjheng (中正) and Jhonghua (中華), Taiwan Statebuilding Party secretary-general Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) told a news conference in Taipei, citing information from the Ministry of the Interior.
The first two refer to Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) and former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) respectively, while the latter is an alternate name for China.
Photo: Wu Su-wei, Taipei Times
“Transitional justice should not only focus on the transition of values in the shift from authoritarianism to democracy, but should also promote a shift in identity from Chinese to Taiwanese,” Wang said. “The issue of road names will be one of the three major issues we will focus on in the local elections this year.”
He said the party hoped to start a grassroots campaign to “improve Taiwan’s democracy and quality of life” by renaming roads, districts, boroughs, schools and other public spaces that draw their names from China or authoritarianism.
“Jhongjheng as the country’s most common road name means Taiwanese society worships an authoritarian figure who committed massacres,” he said. “Using Jhongshan and Jhonghua as road names makes Taiwan the largest Chinatown in the world.”
Taiwan Statebuilding Party candidate for Taipei City councilor Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱) criticized the country’s education system for focusing on Chinese history and geography, while failing to teach about Taiwan.
“Taiwanese are shrouded in the haze of China. If we ignore these issues, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” she said.
The party’s candidate for Taoyuan city councilor Na Su-phok (藍士博) said that the street names issue goes beyond transitional justice.
Having so many roads with the same name — often with multiple examples in the same city — causes confusion, he said.
“Our party office in Taoyuan is on a road named Jhongjheng, and twice already packages have been sent to the wrong address — once to a Jhongjheng Road in the city’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) and once to Jhongli District (中壢),” he said.
Na said there are 300 roads in Taiwan named after authoritarian rulers.
He said that roads named Jhongjheng should be renamed to their respective district names.
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