“Apart from the Taiwanese independence movement, I have striven for nothing else in my life. This is my romantic way of dealing with life.”
Following the opening of a museum dedicated to independence activist Ong Iok-tek (王育德) on Sept. 9, a memorial park dedicated to former World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) chairman Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂) opened in Tainan’s Cigu District on Friday.
A bronze bust in the park showing Ng giving the thumbs-up sign symbolizes his life-long ideal of building an independent Taiwanese state.
During his time as WUFI chairman, the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally was successfully organized thanks to Ng’s ability to unite people and lead Taiwan toward the formation of an independent Taiwanese state.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) and Premier William Lai (賴清德) provided indispensable support for the park, but, absurdly, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Central Standing Committee adopted a resolution on Sept. 19, requesting that no DPP members attend the Formosa Alliance demonstration on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard on Oct. 20 calling for a referendum to oppose annexation of Taiwan by China.
If one is to make the pro-independence faction understand the discrepancy between the DPP’s pragmatic Taiwanese independence and the implementation of a Taiwanese independence policy, one can but wonder what Ng would have done to reconcile Chen and Lai’s political views with the tug-of-war between idealism and pragmatism.
The book under Ng’s left arm in the bronze bust symbolizes his academic work studying the Taiwanese identity. The title of Ng’s University of Tokyo doctoral thesis was “A study of a Democratic Taiwanese State.” It was the first thesis by a Taiwanese overseas student to be published by the University of Tokyo Press.
When the university issued the doctoral degree, the diploma listed Ng’s home country as the Republic of China (ROC), and Ng rejected the degree and requested that it be changed to Taiwan. The university accepted, to the benefit of later Taiwanese graduates at the school, as their diplomas also listed their country as “Taiwan.”
This makes one wonder why the DPP opposes mainstream Taiwanese opinion on the issue of a referendum on whether to ask the International Olympic Committee to allow Taiwan to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.”
Compared with the Taiwanese businesspeople in China who are applying for a Chinese residency permit, what does Ng’s insistence on a Taiwanese identity teach us?
The name engraved on the bust is the romanization of his Taiwanese name, Ng Yuzin Chiautong. Ng is Huang (黃) in Mandarin and Chiautong is Zhaotang (昭堂), but what does Yuzin mean? The Mandarin equivalent is youren (有仁), the name of Ng’s elder brother.
In February 1960, Ng used his name as an alias when he, Ong Iok-tek and a few other Taiwanese students in Japan set up the Taiwan Youth Association at the University of Tokyo.
In memory of his deceased brother, Ng chose to work for Taiwanese independence under his name, which earned him a place on the ROC blacklist and forced him to remain in exile, unable even to attend his mother’s funeral.
Hopefully the DPP will implement both its Taiwanese independence clause and transitional justice so that Taiwanese can continue to rejoice in their work to promote Taiwanese independence.
Koeh Ian-lim is vice chairman of the Taiwan Teachers’ Union.
Translated by Perry Svensson
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the largest naval exercise in the region, are aimed at deepening international collaboration and interaction while strengthening tactical capabilities and flexibility in tackling maritime crises. China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014 and 2016, but it was excluded this year. The underlying reason is that Beijing’s ambitions of regional expansion and challenging the international order have raised global concern. The world has made clear its suspicions of China, and its exclusion from RIMPAC this year will bring about a sea change in years to come. The purpose of excluding China is primarily
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the