Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall re-opens

President Chen Shui-bian will attend the opening ceremony, during which he will open the main entrance to the hall where a giant bronze statue of the late President Chiang Kai-shek will remain in place, said Tseng Kun-ti, the hall’s curator.

The main hall has been shut since its name plaque and an inscription on the arch gateway to the memorial hall complex were replaced earlier this month to get rid of all references to the late president, who has been branded by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as a dictator and the main perpetrator of the tragic 228 Incident of 1947.

President Chen said last weekend while stumping for a DPP legislative candidate that Chiang’s statue will stay put, but the walls of the hall will be decorated with posters featuring the names, photos and life accounts of those who were wrongly killed or persecuted during Chiang’s authoritarian rule of Taiwan until his death in 1975.

Tseng said that the exhibition has been planned by the 228 Incident Memorial Foundation and that he does not know the content of the exhibition.

Tseng made the remarks while explaining the itinerary of the exhibition’s opening ceremony at a press conference.

The opening ceremony will open with a song performed by the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and the National Experimental Chorus, Tseng said.

Afterwards, a group of 100 people will sing four more tunes before Chen opens the hall gate, Tseng went on.

After visiting the special exhibition at the main hall on the second floor of the building, Chen will pay a visit to two exhibitions on the ground floor featuring the government’s lifting of a ban on the launch of new newspapers and the country’s human rights promotion efforts, respectively, Tseng noted.

For safety concern, areas close to the memorial hall will be closed to public access from 2: 00 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Tseng said, adding that the exhibition at the hall will be open to the public from Tuesday afternoon.

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