Divisive Monuments? Put Them All in a Taiwan Park
"So in a lot of places his statue has been taken down." The campaign to take down some of the island’s thousands of Chiang statues was backed by
Chen Shui-bian, president of Taiwan from 2000 to 2008, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally supported independence for Taiwan.
Chen said that We don’t want to be part of China, and Chiang Kai-shek represents the idea that China possesses Taiwan,
lawmaker has proposed moving all remaining Chiang statues to the park in Taoyuan, including the seated
bronze at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in central Taipei, which still has a military honor guard.
More than 200 statues of different sizes and colors have been removed
and relocated from across the island to a park near Chiang’s mausoleum in Taoyuan, a city in northern Taiwan.
Chiang, then the president of the Republic of China, fled with his Nationalist forces to
the island of Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communist armies.
" he said. that In Taiwan there’s the opinions of the Kuomintang
and the Democratic Progressive Party, so dealing with something like Chiang Kai-shek is difficult,
Some of the statues built in his honor have since been removed, but others remain because the cause he represented still has support.
