The government is racing against time to preserve oral histories of survivors of the White Terror before they pass away, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) yesterday said at the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park, where she met several former political prisoners, academics and human right activists and asked their advice on the National Human Rights Museum currently under preparation.
The planned museum includes a culture park in Jingmei, which once served as a military detention center where political dissidents were tried from the late 1960s to the 1980s, as well as a 32 hectare memorial park on Green Island (綠島) that was used to imprison prisoners of conscience.
A preparatory office was set up in December last year, and its current task is to collect, restore and manage documents and information relating to prisoners and victims from 1949, when martial law was declared in Taiwan until 1987, when it was lifted, government officials said.
Photo: Hu Shuan-shiang, Taipei Times
Former political prisoner Liu Chia-chin (劉佳欽) said that it was urgent to form a consultative committee so that different voices and suggestions could be heard and adopted by the museum. He also urged the government to focus its limited budget and resources on people and content rather than facilities.
To reach a larger number of people, former prisoner Chen Sung (陳松) suggested the museum recruit interested college and university students to do internships and volunteer work so that younger generations could learn about the nation’s past.
On the issue of oral history preservation, human rights activist Chen Ming-cheng (陳銘城) said that there was not enough time for museum staff to conduct one-on-one interviews with survivors, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s.
“We can do a lot more if local governments team up with local cultural and historical societies, as well as victim groups, to do the job,” Chen Ming-cheng said.
Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德) echoed Chen Ming-cheng’s view, adding that it takes time to build trust between the government and victims’ families.
“It is difficult for the families to trust the government that once oppressed them. Donating personal objects and documents are just the beginning. The next step is to let the families know how their donations will be preserved, displayed and used. It’s another main task of the museum,” Wu said.
The researcher also said the National Archives should make public the classified files relating to political cases during the White Terror era. The access to original files has been limited even to family members seeking to understand what happened, Wu added.
Lung promised to negotiate with the National Archives on the matter, saying she was stunned when first learning that even now “it is difficult for family members to obtain letters left by their loved ones before they died.”
At yesterday’s meeting with Lung, Chen Meng-ho (陳孟和), who was jailed at Green Island’s New Life Correction Center for 15 years, donated an oil painting depicting what the island looked like during the White Terror era to the museum and invited Lung to pay a visit to Green Island, not as “an governmental official,” but as “a cultural worker.”
During his imprisonment, Cheng Meng-ho took photographs and created a number of sketches and drawings that were later used by the now-defunct Council for Cultural Affairs to reconstruct the prison.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu, front, grabs the pennant in a dragon boat race hosted by Qu Yuan Temple in the Shuanghsi River in Taipei’s Beitou District yesterday.
RSS