When members of Taiwan’s elite declared independence as a move to halt Japan’s takeover of the country towards the end of the 19th century, one of the first things they designed was a flag to reinforce their determination to be free from imperial rule. A replica of the original flag, known as the Yellow Tiger Flag (黃虎旗) of the Republic of Formosa (台灣民主國), is currently on display at the National Taiwan Museum.
The museum’s curators said that the Yellow Tiger Flag embodied the aspirations of the pro-independence forces in Taiwan, which was ceded to Japan in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki following China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War.
Despite high hopes and fierce resistance, however, these anti-Japanese fighters only held out for five months before being overwhelmed by Japanese forces. The flag, having been captured, was immediately sent to Japan.
Photo courtesy of the National Taiwan Museum
The National Taiwan Museum, which holds a replica of the original flag painted in 1909 by Japanese artist Untei Takahashi, recently discovered documents that yield a greater understanding about the thinking that went into the design of original flag, the whereabouts of which remain unknown.
“We organized the exhibition so as to share our findings following extensive restoration, which took 15 months to finish,” Li Tzu-ning (李子寧), an associate curator at the museum, told Taipei Times in an e-mail interview.
The museum’s staff found that the tiger drawn on the back of the flag is different from the tiger drawn on the front. Though the overall features of the two felines look the same, there are minor variations.
“The pupils of the tiger on the front are round and open, while the ones at the back are crescent-shaped. This shows that the pupils dilate and contrast in response to the amount of light in the day and at night,” said Wu Pai-lu (吳百祿), a researcher who took part in the repair project.
“The two tigers, one posing for the day and the other for the night, create an image that is both symmetrical and complementary. It coincides with the belief that the flag will protect the nation day and night (日夜護國),” he said.
Though Takahashi’s work is only a facsimile, Wu says it’s “crucially important” because the original flag — or three flags according to some historical documents — is nowhere to be found.
Of the four existing duplicates in Taiwan, the Takahashi version is the only one that was commissioned and approved by the then-Japanese authorities. In 1953, Chiu Nien-tai (丘念台) — the son of Chiu Feng-jia (丘逢甲), the man who led the resistance against Japan’s occupation — commissioned respected artist Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) to create two paintings based on Takahashi’s flag. Lin produced another color ink version of the flag in 1974.
Although it continues to serve as a symbol of Taiwan’s autonomy, Lee said that today’s independence activists are disinclined to use the flag because of its complex associations with the past.
“The main reason is because the Republic of Formosa was so short-lived,” he said. “And, declaring independence was a diplomatic strategy” to return Taiwan to China.
Last week the Economist (“A short history of Taiwan and China, in maps,” July 10) and Al Jazeera both sent around short explainers of the Taiwan-China issue. The Al Jazeera explainer, which discussed the Cold War and the rivalry between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), began in the postwar era with US intervention in the Chinese Civil War and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) retreat to Taiwan. It was fairly standard, and it works because it appeals to the well-understood convention that Taiwan enters history in 1949 when the KMT retreats to it. Very different, and far
To step through the gates of the Lukang Folk Arts Museum (鹿港民俗文物館) is to step back 100 years and experience the opulent side of colonial Taiwan. The beautifully maintained mansion set amid a manicured yard is a prime example of the architecture in vogue among wealthy merchants of the day. To set foot inside the mansion itself is to step even further into the past, into the daily lives of Hokkien settlers under Qing rule in Taiwan. This museum should be on anyone’s must-see list in Lukang (鹿港), whether for its architectural spledor or its cultural value. The building was commissioned
July 15 to July 21 Depending on who you ask, Taiwan Youth (台灣青年) was a magazine that either spoke out against Japanese colonialism, espoused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ideology or promoted Taiwanese independence. That’s because three publications with contrasting ideologies, all bearing the same Chinese name, were established between 1920 and 1960. Curiously, none of them originated in Taiwan. The best known is probably The Tai Oan Chheng Lian, launched on July 16, 1920 by Taiwanese students in Tokyo as part of the growing non-violent resistance movement against Japanese colonial rule. A crucial part of the effort was to promote Taiwanese
Senior citizens sway to old-time tunes at a former kindergarten in northern China, as educators turn their sights away from children in the face of a rapidly aging population and a baby bust. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are set to enter old age in the coming decades while the country’s chronically low birth rate leaves ever fewer people to replace them, official statistics show. The crisis is already hitting the education sector, with thousands of preschools closing around the country as enrollments dry up. But others are changing with the times — such as a facility in Shanxi province, which has traded