cyh371@nyu.edu

This week’s assigned readings both written by Professor Taylor have given me a disparate feeling from the previous ones: in the documental-like style, the history of the suppressed was gradually revealed in front of the readers’ eyes. You Are Here and Tortuous Routes can be said to be the two readings which made me feel the most resonance among all, since I did some research of my hometown Taiwan about its past of colonization and oppression during college, I found the similarity between the histories of two regions under the same general global political background. In this response, I will simply summarize the readings and briefly introduce Taiwan under the period of Martial Law in the 20th century.

Summary

You Are Here – In this chapter,  Professor Taylor recorded a specific performance “Escrache”, “acts of public shaming” (p.164), conducted by the H.I.J.O.S, “children of the (generation of the) disappeared” (p.161) in their protest against the tragic consequences caused by the past Argentina military junta. Escrache, described “festive and serious” (p.162) in the text, showed the condemnation toward the criminals by marking their crimes to normal people in yellow paint on the streets where the concentration camps Olimpo and Orletti used to be. In addition, based on observation of the inheritance of demonstrations for the same great purpose by organizations from Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, and H.I.J.O.S, three successive generations but fighting for the same group of victims, the concept of “DNA of Performance” was proposed.

Reflection: as an Asian who had no idea about the political history in Latin America, in order to understand what was exactly going on, I spent quite an amount of time to search for the important terms such as Plan Condor, Dirty War, and Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. As I read through the descriptions, I, as one of the generation of postmemory, could somehow resonate and imagine how desperate and dark it might have been at that time. I felt so sad. 

Tortuous Routes – through four walks in Villa Grimaldi, the most notorious concentration camp in Chile, Professor Taylor detailedly narrated her observation and thoughts during the four visits respectively in 2006, 2012, 2013, and 2016. The main question centering through the whole chapter should be “How, and for whom, does a memorial site bring the past into presence?” With or without a guider, discovering more and more unknown after every visit, I found that as time flies and understanding grows, the meaning and function of a particular preservation site often become both more complicated and more diversified.

Taiwan – Martial Law Period

History is always surprisingly alike. After the R.O.C. government fled to Taiwan after its failure in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, on one hand it received abundant aid from the U.S. government until 1965, on the other hand it practiced heavy persecution to the local Taiwanese. Moreover, Martial Law was not lifted until 1987 by President Chiang, Ching-Kuo, hence the Martial Law Period in Taiwan became the second longest in the world, shorter than that issued by the Assad regime in Syria.

In brief, this infamous era of “White Terror” initiated from a conflict between the officials and the citizens in February 27th 1947. On that day, inspectors from the Monopoly Bureau were strictly executing a raid on contraband cigarettes in Taipei as usual; they injured a tobacco vendor and unintentionally killed a civilian, sparking the long-suppressed anger of the populace toward the authority’s corruption and discrimination (stemming from the fact that Taiwanese were once colonized by Japanese, R.O.C’s one and only rival in WWII). On February 28th, citizens held strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations, marching to present their grievances but were then met with machine gun fire from the guards, resulting in several casualties.

The current leader of the Taiwan provincial government Chen, Yi reported Chiang, Kai-Shek, the current R.O.C president, of the incident as a “rebellion”, making the latter send armed troops from mainland China for putting down the “resistance”. During this period, a large number of casualties and disappearances occurred. A significant number of Taiwanese residents were arrested, shot, or went missing, including elite individuals unrelated to the protests. This event had a profound impact on the local political landscape, deepening ethnic divisions and hostilities. Following these events, Taiwan  entered the era of White Terror. This is the “February 28th Incident”.

The followings are some of the authoritative brutal actions I found in online resources:

(They can trigger great uncomfortableness)

1. Numerous local Taiwanese elite/gentry individuals were schemed to death; while they believed that they were representing the general Taiwanese citizens to negotiate with the government, the latter kidnapped and shot them as soon as they arrived at the negotiation spot. There was once the shooting having taken place right after the two sides sat down and took a photo as a proof of “successful negotiation”; the soldiers were ordered aiming their rifles at the elites right after the official people left.

2. College students, school teachers, and even presidents who had never joined any demonstration were taken away by the Chinese official intelligence agency crew and then went missing since then, leaving their families worrying and grieving for the rest of their lives. These people are mostly local Taiwanese.

3. Testimony of tortures and executions to death from victims and papers including being burnt, tied tightly with thin wire, cut down certain body parts, penetrated fingers, and gun shot. Even after death, their bodies were maliciously exposed on streets and their families were not allowed to collect and bury them for days.

4. The current authority encouraged citizens to report “communist spies”; one report could be rewarded with a great amount of bounty. This caused the indifferent and anxious atmosphere among the Taiwanese society during Martial Law period, in which people have to worry about others might betray them for huge financial benefit every day.

In the 1990s and beyond, various sectors of society in Taiwan initiated investigations, research, compensation efforts for the victims and their families, the establishment of memorials, and the restoration of the reputation of those affected by the Feb 28th Incident. Currently, Taiwan has the Feb 28th Memorial Foundation and the National 228 Memorial Hall, and various regions have also set up 228 Peace Memorials.

Book Recommendation – Formosa Betrayed by George Kerr, the U.S. ambassador in Taiwan who witnessed Feb 28th Incident