http://tainanchineseclass.blogspot.com/2010/02/228-museum.html
You can go to this blog entry for the background.
Since that time, the Museum as been renovated so I went back again. The Museum was first opened when the DPP(Taiwan Peoples Party) was in power and this renovation happen now when the KMT(Old Nationalist Chinese Party) is in power. There was some controversy that the current KMT party had tried to downplay the significance of the massacre of Taiwanese by the Nationalist when they retreated to Taiwan from the mainland at the end of WWII. I didn't see that.
For me a lot of the material was the same and the biggest change was the use of flat screens to show film footage from that time. For me the worst part was that the translations into English were terrible. I just don't understand why such important translations are not reviewed by a native speaker. It is so disconcerting that it detracts from the whole experience.
The incident that begins the 'White Terror" is over bootleg cigarettes.
The pain is still there, I can tell. Tucsonans will probably feel similar emotions for a long time about our Jan. 8 massacre when 30 people were shot. The politics aren't the same, of course, but the debate over gun control and access still rages. This past week a high school girl and a 7-year-old boy were gunned down in separate incidents of violence. Maybe as much happens in Seattle, but not as many people there think it's a right to carry guns.
ReplyDeleteGun violence in the US, is because politicians can't fight the NRA. In Taiwan during the 228 Incident somewhere between 18,000 and 30,000 citizen were killed by the government. In Taiwan, the "state of emergency"(called the "White Terror") lasted until 1987, 140,000 citizens were executed or imprisoned during this time.
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