War over Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

The war over the memorial broke out with President Chen Shui-bian calling it a grotesque relic of the imperial past early this year. He condemned the deceased president as the chief culprit of the Feb. 28 Incident of 1947 and had the title of the entire complex in the heart of Taipei changed to the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Park.

Mayor Hau Lung-bin of Taipei has defied President Chen by designating the park a cultural heritage site pro tem, where no change in appearance or the structures within the compound is allowed for one year to preserve the name of Chiang Kai-shek. Tu Cheng-sheng, minister of education and President Chen’s henchman, took over the fight, downgrading the park management to make it easier to get rid of any mention of Chiang Kai-shek on the enclosure. Subsequently, the Council for Cultural Affairs designated the memorial park a cultural heritage site in an attempt to help Tu remove two name plaques — one at its pailou-like front gate and the other above the door of the huge hall.

The plaque on the pailou reads “da zhong zhi zheng” (大中至正) which literally means “great mean/perfect uprightness.” In English translation, the main entrance to the memorial should be better known as the Gate of Uprightness. But the problem with our education minister is that the second character, if combined with the last, makes the given name of Chiang Kai-shek, who called himself Chiang (Jiang) Zhongzheng. Kai-shek is a Cantonese transliteration of Jieshi in Mandarin, which is his literary name. That’s why that plaque has to be replaced with one naming the gate Liberty Plaza before Dec. 8. Tu also wants to change the inscription on the other plaque to read Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. Again, we hope it will be shortened to the Democracy Memorial in English translation.

Hau is threatening to throw the book at whoever tries to tamper with the two name plaques, which he insists on keeping intact. We wish to recommend a compromise. Why not keep the Gate of Uprightness and get rid of “Taiwan” from the other plaque?

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