As the 20th anniversary of the murder of DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung's (
Family friends said it was once impossible for Lin and his wife Fang Su-min (
But today, the couple and their friends say they are finally able to move on and feel they want to do something in memory of the twins.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
On Feb. 28, 1980, when Lin was jailed and awaiting trial for his participation in the Kaohsiung Incident the year before, an unknown killer came to his house in an alley off Hsinyi Road and fatally stabbed Lin's then 60-year-old mother and his three daughters.
His eldest daughter, Lin Huan-chin (
The murder, which remains unsolved, is often thought to have been politically motivated because of Lin's active role in the opposition movement.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The standard claim by officials at the time was that a burglar was responsible.
Physically, the twin girls may have been absent from the family for 20 years, but they are living every moment in their mother's memory.
"It would have been their 26th birthday on Feb. 2 this year. They should have had dates like other girls at their age. And they might have married like their elder sister did," Fang said.
"I had only six years to be with Ting-chin and Liang-chin. But it is a lifelong memory they have left with me," Fang said.
The Chilin Foundation (慈林文教基金會), founded by the Lins and some of their friends, will hold a memorial event on the birthdays of the sisters on Feb. 2, instead of Feb. 28, the day they died.
"We'd like to remember the joy the girls' births brought to the Lin family and many other friends, rather than recall the anger and sadness their deaths brought us," said Chen Ming-chung (陳銘政), organizer of the event, to be held at the 228 Peace Park.
"Politics is something we want to avoid during the event. We miss the two lovely kids and we believe we have to do something for them 20 years after their deaths," Chen added.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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