Tuesday 22 May 2007

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

The CKS Memorial name change drama continued today when Taipei City ordered all matter the Ministry of Education has affixed on or draped over the building be removed.

(photo from Yam news)

(photo from Yam news)

(photo from Yam news)

(photo from Yam news)

Before they can get past legal and technical challenges and change the sign on the building, they've just covered it.

After the tarps and coverings were removed and confiscated by the city, the MOE announced that it is suing the city for not returning its property it removed from the building. How childish this all seems. But as part of the media circus, I've been assigned to go to stand outside the MOE, and see if I can get the education minister to comment on what he wants to do about this on his way out to the Executive Yuan meeting.

If the name is successfully changed, then I have a feeling that the monument of Chiang Kai-shek inside the hall will be the next thing to go. Perhaps eventually with the wall gone, the name changed, the monument destroyed, there will be nothing left but concrete and marble. It almost feels like the Cultural Revolution being reenacted today in Taiwan, just as the an author in the Economist noted.

(photo from wikipedia)

People whose family was hurt and wronged by CKS should receive some kind of consolation and the pain that they went through should be forever be remembered, but destroying a part of history hardly seems the right way to do it.

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