A memorial concert was held yesterday in Taipei to pay tribute to late independence movement pioneer and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) in honor of his dedication to the pursuit of freedom, democracy and independence in Taiwan.
Chai died of multiple organ failure on Jan. 11 at the age of 78. He had been hospitalized after a brain stem hemorrhage left him in a coma on Dec. 18 last year.
Chai’s friends performed alongside musicians at the Metropolitan Hall, with songs that included some of the lawmaker’s favorites from his 30 years abroad, such as Homeland at Dusk (黃昏的故鄉) and I’m Coming Home (回鄉的我).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chai left Taiwan in 1960 for the US to go to graduate school. His pro-Taiwan independence activities while in the US resulted in the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime barring him from returning home. It blacklisted him for three decades before he was able to return for a funeral in June 1990.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) were among the senior party members who praised Chai’s lifelong pursuit of democracy in Taiwan and international recognition for the nation, especially his lobbying efforts in the US Congress.
“He will be greatly missed. And we will do our best to achieve his unfulfilled dream,” Su said.
“We are here today to look back on his achievement. Dr Chai will be remembered as one who has always done everything he could for his dream, for his perseverance and for his ‘never-say-die’ mentality,” Tsai said.
Chai lived in the US while in exile, founding the World United Formosans for Independence in 1970, which brought together pro-Taiwan independence groups in Japan, Europe, Canada and the US, and the Formosan Association for Public Affairs in Los Angeles in 1982. He also focused on lobbying the US Congress on behalf of Taiwan’s independence movement.
Chai served six terms in the legislature from 1993 to 2012 and helped push for legislation on the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS