An announcement by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s cheerleading team that its members are to have an outing on Wednesday, the anniversary of the 228 Incident, faced a backlash online from people who said the team is being indifferent toward what should be a national day of mourning.
Many of the online comments mentioned the team saying: “Hope you participate and enjoy yourselves amid cheers,” while others said Hsinchu City would have contrasting events with parts of the city preparing for a solemn, ceremonial event observing the 77th anniversary of the incident, while other parts would have merrymaking.
The 228 Incident refers to an uprising that began on Feb. 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government starting the next day. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to more than 30,000. The Incident marked the beginning of the White Terror era in Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The cheerleading team’s planned outing, which includes a march, is to take place ahead of the Meichu Games, an annual sports competition next month between National Tsing Hua University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. This year’s three-day Meichu Games is slated to begin on Friday next week.
Some Internet users said the timing of the cheerleading team’s planned event failed to take into consideration feelings of politically oppressed people’s family members.
School authorities also received criticism, with some online users saying that their silence could be seen as tacit approval, while some alleged it perhaps shows the university’s implicit recognition of the moves to undercut the importance of 228 Peace Memorial Day.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University yesterday said that it respects students’ efforts to “hype up” the event and that it believes the students have not forgotten the significance of the Incident, adding that it has asked the Department of Student Affairs and the student representatives on the game’s organizing committee to be more cautious with statements.
National Tsing Hua University, the co-organizer of the Meichu Games, yesterday said that it did not grant the planned march permission to visit its campus, citing the date as inappropriate.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University president Lin Chi-hung (林奇宏) yesterday said the students wanted to organize the event to the best of their ability and perhaps Feb. 28 is not anything more than a date to them.
“We do not necessarily have to face our past with sorrow,” he said.
Citing the American Civil War as an example, Lin said the war was the deadliest in US history, but to date, the nation has not officially set the start or closing day of the war as an official memorial day.
In contrast, Feb. 28 has become a taboo and a political symbol serving to the needs of certain figures every year, Lin said.
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