The Ministry of Culture has designated the former residence of democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) in Taipei a heritage site that reflects the injustice enacted by the state against the populace.
The announcement was made through a promulgation on the ministry’s Web site on Thursday last week.
On Dec. 13, 1979, Lin was arrested and detained over his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident. On Feb. 28,1980, Lin’s mother and seven-year-old twin daughters were murdered in the house. A third daughter, aged nine at the time, survived the stabbing attack. Although a 2023 Control Yuan report linked the murders to the National Security Bureau, the killers were never identified.
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Photo courtesy of the Gikong Presbyterian Church
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said on Tuesday that Gikong Presbyterian Church, the owner of the former Lin residence, had previously applied for heritage status for the site in Taipei’s Daan District (大安), but it was turned down by the Taipei City Government.
Fan thanked President William Lai (賴清德) for ordering the ministry to review the house’s historical value a day after she and the church held a joint news conference on the eve of the 228 Incident this year, urging the Legislative Yuan to pass proposed “guidelines for promoting the establishment of sites that are relevant to transitional justice.”
The ministry defines these as “sites that serve as a reflection on authoritarian rule and state human rights violations, as well as memorials that highlight state injustice and popular resistance during authoritarian rule.”
Photo courtesy of the National Human Rights Museum
The 228 Incident refers to a crackdown launched by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime against civilian demonstrations following an incident in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947.
The ensuing massacre and imposition of martial law marked the beginning of the decades-long White Terror era, during which thousands of people were arrested, imprisoned and executed.
The ministry’s decision made the former Lin family home the first in Taiwan to receive the designation of being a “being a site relevant to injustices enacted by the state,” Fan said.
The recognition of the former Lin residence is a goal in Taiwan’s quest for transitional justice and proof that struggles for justice are never in vain, she said, adding that her office would continue in the race against time to protect historical sites that bore witness to injustices during the authoritarian period.
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