Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Why the Name of Democracy Memorial Hall Should Not Be Changed Back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Part II

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

This is the continuation of the letter of K.W. Dowie. It is one more testimonial on the brutality imposed on Taiwanese by the late dictator Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It is not an isolated incident but rather one of continued, innumerable cases of suffering and murder from that time. Despite that, there are still those who want to change the name of Taiwan Democracy Hall back to that of the dead dictator. Only the sickest of authoritarian minds would want to do so, but those sick minds still exist in Taiwan. For those Taiwanese who have short memories just scroll down to my entries of March 13 on about Kuo Kuan-ying, Diane Lee and the KMT leech that has always been at Taiwan's throat. (The letter continues here.)

Why the Name of Democracy Memorial Hall Should Not Be Changed Back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The following letter of April 14, 1947 was written by K.W. Dowie at the request of George William Mackay to Mackay's daughter Margaret in Canada. Mackay (the son of famed missionary George Leslie MacKay) wanted to get out news of what was happening in Taiwan after 2/28. Dowie had been a missionary in Taiwan 1913~1924 and was the architect of Tamsui Middle School; he was visiting Taiwan in the service of the US Navy after World War II. Not wanting to risk censorship Dowie wrote and mailed the letter after he left Taiwan. It is another first hand account of the murders after 2/28 and another reason why the name of Democracy Memorial Hall should never be changed back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The letter follows.

KMT's policy leaves it flat-footed

Chih-yu Shih

The director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Wang Yi, has given Taiwan the jitters by suggesting the opening up of the Taiwan Strait median line. Such discussions had always been held behind closed doors and bringing it out into the open challenges the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) policy of avoiding discussion of unification, independence or armed conflict.

The KMT has only itself to blame because it has taken satisfaction in its ability to maintain cross-strait peace since it returned to power last year and it feels it should receive full credit for the international acclaim over the detente across the Taiwan Strait.

Hard to tell friends from enemies

Taipei Times

News that a close relative of a senior military intelligence official is living in a hostile country would be enough to set alarm bells ringing in most countries. Such a revelation would probably lead to the official in question being forced to recall his relative or being disciplined in some way.

Not so in Taiwan.

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