With no trace of hatred or bitterness, yesterday's "birthday party" for the twin daughters of DPP Chairman and former activist Lin I-hsiung (
Remembering the joy they had brought during their six short years of life, friends of the Lin family yesterday celebrated the Feb. 2 birth date of the twin girls, Lin Liang-chin (
The day of their murder, Feb. 28, 1980 appeared to be behind the choice of location for the party -- Taipei's 228 Memorial Museum, which was established in memory of events on the same day in 1947, that led to the massacre of thousands of Taiwanese at the hands of the KMT government.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, 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 (
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.
In the early 1980s, when Taiwan's opposition movement was in full swing, the murder of Lin's twin daughters and his mother outraged Taiwanese people.
Lin's wife, Fang Su-min (
Supporters' tears, anger, and talks of revenge prevailed at her campaign rallies. Eventually, she won, a victory she attributed to those supporters who have stood by the family, offering comfort since the tragic incident.
The healing process has been slow and the Lins had felt they were not ready to come to terms with the twin girls' death for many years.
It was not until the memorial service yesterday that the couple felt ready to recall the fond memories they had of their twin daughters.
"Some of the greatest moments of my life were with my three kids," said Lin. "I loved to play and sing with them. Most of the time we did nothing special but the joy we had was more than everything."
"I have been talking to them [the twins] even after their death. And the girls have told me of nothing painful. I've felt nothing but happiness whenever talking to them," Lin said.
But, the opposition leader also spelled out his disappointment with the ills of Taiwan society and said his twin daughters were lucky to leave for heaven.
"It has been 20 years since their death but I've seen few changes in society. I think my daughters must live a happier life than those living in Taiwan," Lin said.
Huan-chin, who is living in the US, Alabama, with her American husband, is expecting her first baby in late March.
During the memorial event yesterday, a video tape was shown and words of gratitude from the only survivor of the 1980 murder thanked those who had helped her through the ordeal.
The event concluded with Lin and his wife saying thanks to the friends who had organized the service, the nannies of the twin daughters and the doctors who saved Huan-chin.
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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