Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The boy who lived to the fullest: Dai Lin

Liberty Times

Dai Lin holds a poster by Banciao’s Jiangzicui Station that reads, “FREE HUG. We have all been apathetic for too long. Let’s give each other a hug,” in an undated photo in New Taipei City to bring love to society after Cheng Chieh’s mass murder in Taipei’s MRT.
Photo: TAKEN from Facebook

Following the mass murder incident committed by Cheng Chieh in Taipei’s MRT metro system in May last year, several members of the public undertook an initiative of free hugs at Jiangzicui Station in Banciao. Among them was Dai Lin, who held a poster that read, “We have all been apathetic for too long. Let’s give each other a hug.” With real actions, he and his friends brought back some warmth in society. Lin’s mother posted a picture of Lin offering free hugs to people by the MRT station on her Facebook page on Saturday last week and wrote ardently, “He was such a kind and passionate kid.”

Ma’s clamorous opus in four parts

Huang Kuo-chang 黃國昌

If the past few years of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term in office were to be set to music, it would be an opus in four parts entitled “illegal abuses of power,” “making trouble,” “fomenting conflict” and “refusing to correct past errors,” with a clear musical motif running through the piece, as it does his record in office.

It runs through the political storm he whipped up in September 2013; it runs through the infamous attempt to rush through the review of the cross-strait service trade agreement; and the strain can still be heard in the present controversy over the adjustments to social studies high-school curriculum guidelines, again devised behind closed doors.

Curriculum changes for the colonial outpost

Lee Min-yung 李敏勇

The government’s attempt to implement changes to high-school curriculum guidelines is an outrage based on a colonial mindset and the party-state’s fear of losing power. At a time when their Republic of China (ROC) is no longer in China, the evolution of the national epistemology that has resulted from the party-state’s constant reinterpretation of itself during the democratization process — going from the view that there is the ROC on Taiwan to the idea that the ROC is Taiwan — has in effect exposed the party-state’s lies and revealed that the emperor is wearing no clothes.

Curriculum talks with MOE break down

Taipei Times

National Taichung First Senior High School Apple Tree Commune Club spokesperson Chen Chien-hsun falls to his knees and asks forgiveness of student protester Dai Lin, who apparently committed suicide on Thursday last week in protest against curriculum adjustments, at a news conference following unproductive talks with Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa on the curriculum controversy at the National Central Library in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA

Talks between Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and students over the curriculum controversy fell apart yesterday, with students storming out of a Ministry of Education (MOE)-sponsored forum in tears.

“What in the world are these talks supposed to be?” Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance convener Chu Chen (朱震) said. “What I see is a failure of education and a policy that has gradually moved away from the masses.”

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