Thursday’s Taipei Times displayed a front-page photo of the Presidential Office, with a potted plant set in a place formerly reserved for a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China.
(Photo from the March 15th edition of the Taipei Times)
A day later, an editorial in the China Post read, "DPP’s attempt to cut ties with China will backfire."
Much as I’d like to say they’re all wrong, I can’t. Yes, I know why President Chen, a TAIWANESE nationalist, would wish to remove a symbol of CHINESE nationalism. But replacing a picture of Sun with a PLANT?
That’s a slap in the face. It needlessly mobilizes his political enemies, while antagonizing voters who straddle the fence. When you’re engaged in a struggle with the Chinese Nationalists over the name of the Post Office and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, why open another front? Removing the "China" from the titles of the Taiwan’s Post Office and other state institutions is a worthy cause necessary for distinguishing this "China" from the REAL one. And dismantling the cult of Chiang isn’t de-sinification; it’s democratization.
But near as I can tell, Sun Yat-sen, unlike Chiang, never hurt Taiwan. In politics, you have to pick your battles, and I’m sorry to say, I have agree with the China Post when it says that Chen is over-reaching here.
Hope I’m wrong.
UPDATE (MAR 19/07): A few townships controlled by the Taiwan’s Chinese Nationalist Party removed portraits of SITTING President Chen Shui-bian during the height of the anti-Chen protests in September / October 2006.
i-1
Why should Sun, who never set foot in Taiwan, be honored the way he was in Taiwan’s Presidential Office in the first place? I think the presence of the statue there may have been more of a slap in the face to Taiwan than vice-versa. BTW, the “pot plant” (as the online version of the Taipei Times article* called it) looks like a bonsai**, so it might be older than Sun himself — and it’s still alive.
* http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/03/15/2003352338
** http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/10.31/16-bonsai.html
I wasn’t arguing the rightness or wrongness of removing his portrait – just the tactics of doing it at this time. For me, the name program and the de-Chiang-ification program are a higher priority.
If that is in fact a bonsai, then the DPP has chosen to replace a portrait of a Chinese historical figure with an object that is closely identified with Japan.
Hey guys, I think Sun did step foot in Taiwan and the Chinese KMT was so desperate to try to Sinify Taiwan that they built a memorial of the visit in Taipei (I believe it is near the train station).
Anyways, the basic point is right. Sun has nothing to do with Taiwan. In the context of his time, he was probably not so bad, but he is more of a symbol and a desire of the CCP, and the Chinese KMT to find something good in their past rather than the actual existence of a saint-like figure.
I think this photo is hilarious. I’m from Canada but have been back to Taiwan several times.
The first time I saw the Sun Yat Sen and CKS Memorial halls, I was taken aback.
It reminded me of Lenin or Mao’s portrait on Tinnamen. I had no idea modern democratic nations glorified “mere mortals” with a color guard and accompaning propaganda video.
I can’t understand Chinese, but the English translations of the story of the great man’s life read like satire. I had no idea that someone who lost wars could build such grandiose monuments to themselves.
It changed my understanding of history and made me realize that Taiwan’s independence is critical to preserving its democracy.
I say leave it up, a potted plant is probably a more meaningful and aesthetically pleasing memorial.
Congratulations, and welcome to the 21st Century.