On April 28, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka stated on Facebook her opposition to central government officials taking part in worship ceremonies for Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), also known as Koxinga, who used Taiwan as a base to resist the Qing Dynasty after it overthrew the Ming Dynasty in China.
Considering Koxinga from an Aboriginal point of view, Kolas sees him as an invader.
In contrast, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇), who is reputed to be a descendant of Koxinga, said that he should be seen in a positive light for having resisted unification with China.
These points of view might seem contradictory, but they actually describe different aspects of Koxinga.
RE-ENACTMENT
Events take place at which people worship Koxinga or dress up as him to re-enact history. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as they do it to recreate history rather than to draw questionable parallels between the past and the present.
One example of the latter is that during Japan’s 50-year rule over Taiwan, they extolled Koxinga, whose mother was Japanese, as a national hero.
Japanese rule was followed by the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who praised Koxinga’s Tungning Kingdom as a model for “counterattacking the mainland.”
To re-enact history, a depiction should be multidimensional, not made from a single point of view.
For example, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the US is also known as Presidents’ Mountain, because it features the heads of four of the most important US presidents.
However, Mount Rushmore was originally territory of the Sioux people. Only after the Sioux were defeated by white people did the federal government take possession of the land. Later, the heads of four presidents were carved into the mountainside, much to the annoyance of Native Americans.
In 1948, the Sioux began work on a statue of Sioux leader Crazy Horse, who fought against the federal army, on Thunderhead Mountain, 27km from the presidential memorial.
People who travel to this area can observe how the US has opposing viewpoints of its history and yet has been able to bring them together and stand united.
In Taiwan, when commemorative activities that recreate the landing of Koxinga’s forces in Taiwan are held, why not include some people playing the role of the Siraya people?
Why not combine the event with worship of Pingpu Aborigines’ home spirits in the vicinity of Tainan’s Koxinga Shrine?
People can live for a long time and go through all kinds of experiences. No one is completely good or bad.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL
A multidimensional re-enactment of Koxinga would be a better way to teach future generations about the many aspects of Taiwan’s history. It would provide a more appropriate historical account of Koxinga himself.
There are differences in the way memorial activities for Koxinga and Chiang Kai-shek are conducted. Koxinga never ruled the whole of Taiwan. No military police are assigned to patrol the Koxinga Shrine. Nobody has ever had to stand to attention and salute a statue of Koxinga.
It should therefore be much easier to make memorial activities for Koxinga more multidimensional than to do the same thing for Chiang Kai-shek.
Chang Ching-wei is a postgraduate student at National Tsing Hua University’s Institute of History.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of