Taiwan Church News
3468 Edition
August 13 – 19, 2018
Topical News
Citizen Workshop Held To Overhaul Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Reported by Tseng Wang-yu
On August 12, a citizen workshop organized by Ministry of Culture is held at Tainan to discuss how to deal with the notorious Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall stabbed in the geographical heat of Taiwan’s capital city – Taipei.
23 citizens or experts, from different profession, gender, age and ideological stance, are invited to share their thoughts and observation on how to solve kinds of historical justice problems left by this authoritarian complex building.
Quoting American novelist Fitzgerald’s famous saying: “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy”, Emeritus History Professor Lee Hsiau-hon of Taipei Normal University talks in a straight and cynical tone: “Except Taiwan, there is no other democratic country around the world would build a memorial hall to commemorate the dictator who heinously murdered and oppressed their compatriots”.
Prof Lee, therefore, suggests three direct ways to overhaul this grotesque Chiang’s Temple: first, transform it into a parliamentary site to accommodate current Legislative Yuan; second, change it as a Presidential museum and no more worship any particular president as the supreme national hero; third, annex current site as a part of national library which just stands in front of it.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
