An exhibition that explores the White Terror era is on display at the Sinying Cultural Center (新營文化中心) in Tainan.
The show, titled “The White Dream: An Exhibition on the Victims of Political Persecution During Taiwan’s White Terror,” was organized by the Tainan Bureau of Cultural Affairs. The exhibition opened on Thursday last week and runs through Dec. 13.
It includes historical documents, manuscripts and oral histories that tell the stories of 17 people, including victims and their families, as well as artwork and/or writings by them.
The White Terror era refers to the repression that began after the 228 Incident in 1947, when an anti-government uprising was violently suppressed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which later declared martial law and initiated purges.
Historians estimate that between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed during the crackdown.
Of the 17 people whose stories are included in the exhibition, 12 were directly persecuted, while the remaining had family members who were victimized.
Among the artwork in the show are White Terror survivor and artist Chen Wu-jen’s (陳武鎮) oil paintings collectively titled the Shadow Series (陰影系列), and his wooden sculptures The Political Prisoner (政治犯) and Fictitious Crimes of Enormity (虛擬巨惡).
The exhibit also includes the final draft of former political prisoner and physician Yen Shih-hung’s (顏世鴻) autobiography, titled No. 3 Chingtao East Road (青島東路三號), named for the address of a military detention facility in Taipei where he was held before his trial.
Ting Yao-tiao’s (丁窈窕) story is examined in detail at the exhibition. She was executed in 1956 at the age of 28 for alleging being a “bandit [communist] spy,” but materials in the exhibition show that she died as the result of a fabricated accusation made by an informant who held a grudge against her.
Ting had advised a friend, Shih Shui-huan (施水環), against pursuing a relationship with the informant, who then took revenge by reporting Ting to the Taiwan Provincial Security Command, using a banned book he found on her desk, the materials show.
Shih was also arrested and executed on the same day as Ting, historians said.
“To its victims, the history of the White Terror vanished as if it was a dream, but it was a dream that left an indelible mark on their lives,” Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) said.
The show is part of the bureau’s research on victims of the White Terror, and is funded by a grant from the Preparatory Office of the National Human Rights Museum.
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