A memorial square is to be built on National Taiwan University’s (NTU) campus in honor of democracy advocate Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), the NTU Student Association said yesterday.
Chen, an NTU graduate and assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was found dead on the campus on July 3, 1981, a day after being questioned by the Taiwan Garrison Command.
In 2011, the Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation wrote to NTU about raising a monument in his honor, but received no response, the association said, adding that a student proposal sent to the Gallery of NTU History in 2012 also went unanswered.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Following the passage of proposals for the name of the memorial square and a monument at university affairs meetings in 2014 and 2015, a call for designs was made in 2016, but funding became an issue the following year, it said.
While former NTU president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) had promised that the university would cover half of the costs, NTU president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has refused to allow the university to fund or raise funds for the project, or help promote the foundation’s fundraising campaign due to the “political sensitivity” of the issue, the association said.
Nevertheless, the foundation has raised the NT$12 million (US$398,340) needed for the memorial square, the association said, adding that a donation agreement was signed with NTU on Monday.
The association said that it saw how the legacy of the authoritarian system endures in today’s democratic society when advocating for the construction of the memorial.
The truth has yet to be made public and justice has not been served, it said, adding that it hopes the memorial would prevent Chen’s death from being forgotten.
In related news, an annual event held by the foundation, the Taiwan Gongsheng Youth Association and 44 other groups to commemorate the 228 Incident, which is to mark its 73rd anniversary this year, is to return for its fourth edition.
This year, organizers said that they plan on marching past several historical sites related to the Incident, including Taipei’s Rixin Elementary School, the Tianma Tea House (天馬茶房) and the now-defunct Taiwan Province Monopoly Bureau’s Taipei branch.
During the march, participants are to read the names of the Incident’s victims and use sign language to perform poetry communicating the “silent voices” of the victims and their families, they said.
Through the event, organizers said that they hope to continue urging those in power to achieve transitional justice and the public to “refuse to forget and insist on resisting.”
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS