The final point of transitional justice is the question of how to repurpose the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei once Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) statue is removed. It has been suggested that the space dedicated to the worship of a dictator could provide the grounds for a new Legislative Yuan building — a symbol of democracy. In other words, destroying the building would do away with the problem of how to repurpose it, as it would cover Chiang with a new Legislative Yuan.
Doing so would not only solve the issue of building a new legislative building, but would also allow everyone to breathe easier.
However, this brings to mind the Tianma Tea House (天馬茶房) on 189 Nanjing W Rd in Taipei — where government agents confiscated contraband cigarettes on Feb. 27, 1947, which led to the 228 Incident the next day — which was torn down and replaced in 2005. Local community leaders and culture and history experts who felt that the demolition was wrong reopened the tea house on the third floor of the new building, featuring a display of historical materials and photographs.
In 2012, someone discovered that the memorial plaque put up by the Taipei City Government to commemorate the site of the incident was in the wrong place.
This shows that the government and the public have a poor sense of history, and a rash decision can later be regretted.
When dealing with the hugely symbolic hall, some people follow their instincts and say that it would be better to demolish it. Following the same logic, would it not also be good to demolish the Executive Yuan, which used to house the chief executive’s office, a position held only by Chen Yi (陳儀), who ordered troops to fire at the crowd in 1947? Obviously not.
The National Theater and Concert Halls are focal points of the memorial. The plaza between the two cultural centers and their wide stairs provided the main stage for 1990’s Wild Lily student movement, which led to the abolishment of the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款), the lifting of the suspension on the National Assembly and paved the way for free legislative elections: all key milestones in Taiwan’s democratic development.
It has been a long time since the hall was only concerned with Chiang. Looking out from inside the hall, the surrounding environment has undergone many changes.
The first was made in 2007 by then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) when the inscription dazhong zhizheng (大中至正, which includes two characters of Chiang’s honorific) on the park’s main gate was changed to “Liberty Square.”
As Taiwanese society continues to evolve, Chiang continues to be replaced by more liberal attitudes. Last month, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) announced that Chiang-related products, promotional materials and songs will be removed from the hall’s gift store shelves, further removing Chiang’s presence. Once the trend starts, nothing will stop it.
That is just as it should be. The spirit of the word “liberty” has a unifying concept for the entire hall. The National Theater and Concert Halls, the real focus of the public, treat creative freedom as their focal point, further consolidating the hall’s liberal concept.
People should view the handling of the hall from the perspective of freedom. Chiang’s statue will one day be removed by heavy machinery and people will find that ritual to be overwhelming and everlasting. As they turn their eyes back to the empty base, they will feel liberated as if shackles had been removed and they will shout out in joy: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
If the hall is demolished, the issue will come to an end, and the sense of liberty brought by an empty hall would disappear with the building. People would not be able to learn from past mistakes, which is crucial in the push for transitional justice.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is right: The building should be kept.
However, his proposal that the statue should also be kept is wrong. All installations featuring elements of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party-state and designs copied from the imperial Forbidden City in Beijing should be eliminated.
When the base of the statue is the only thing left in the empty hall, it will create a feeling of spaciousness because the “idol” no longer exists. It will be a temple of liberty that deliberately leaves an empty space. As future generations and visitors try to explain why there is nothing there, they will have to review the 228 Incident and Taiwan’s transitional justice. They will repeatedly remind themselves that liberty does not come easily.
Should there be another statue of a great person or people in the hall? Replacing Chiang’s statue with other statues will only create more controversy. Perhaps the guards should continue their duty at the hall to safeguard this temple to liberty, free of idols.
Democracy serves as a means to reach the goal of liberty. As for how to present the image of liberty through emptiness and the unlimited creativity it holds, that will be the job of artists.
Christian Fan Jiang is a member of the Northern Taiwan Society.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS