Taiwan Matters!

Have you ever seen souvenir items based on images from Adolf Hitler’s life being sold anywhere in the world to commemorate his legacy? I doubt it, because it is simply not right to promote the legacy of the mastermind behind the Holocaust.

But in Taiwan, souvenir items based on images from the lives of dead dictator Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo are being sold across Taiwan at the nation’s biggest bookstore chain (see the video at that link), Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店).

To my dismay, the legacy of Taiwan’s dead dictator, the mastermind behind Taiwan’s 228 massacre in 1947, is being revived!

The great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Demos Chiang’s design company, the DEM INC., designed some disgusting souvenirs featuring images from the life of dead dictator Chiang and his son, the head of the secret police during Taiwan's White Terror period. The souvenir items include pens, T-shirts, notebooks, post cards, and more.

If Demos Chiang were a businessman who cared about Taiwan’s worsening human rights situation and noticed the recent erosion of justice, these products commemorating dictator Chiang’s life would not have been designed in the first place, not to mention being mass produced for sale in Taiwan’s biggest bookstore chain.

Have you seen Demos Chiang’s blog updated with any words of support for a better Taiwan like what the Wild Strawberries Student Movement has been fighting for? No! And how could he, since he was probably preoccupied by this souvenir design project?!

Identifying himself as a Taiwanese (my note: which I really doubt now), Demos Chiang, previously admitted that his family members had persecuted the Taiwanese people in the past, but it is now quite evident that such remarks were merely a tactic to promote his company and obtain contracts.

Many of Taiwan’s younger businessmen will tell you that they love Taiwan, but deep down they don’t. They love money more than anything else. All they care about is making lots of profits despite unethical business practices and despite the risk of becoming Chinese slaves in the near future. They represent a lost generation who were born to a more democratic Taiwanese society that was already there for them because of the blood shed by their predecessors.

How pathetic!

Reference sources:
From page 8 of the Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Taipei Times, read the editorial Young Chiang shows KMT the way.

For Chinese text of Demos Chiang's admission that his relatives persecuted the Taiwanese, read 蔣友柏:我家人曾迫害台灣人.

See the video which brought attention to Eslite's sales of CKS and CCK souvenirs.

Labels: Chiang Kai-shek, Demos Chiang, Wild StrawBerries Movement

He also has a strange definition of "young"

This past Sunday, the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Demos Chiang (蔣友柏) wrote something on his blog criticizing the sore loser behavior of eternal Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) following Lien's loss of the 2004 presidential election. Chiang's mother, Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡), subsequently apologized to the KMT on his behalf (not that he wanted her to do so) and submitted her party resignation.

As if Chiang Fang's behavior wasn't foolish enough, Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) gave his own response to Demos Chiang -- a response which I hope will alienate many young voters:

台中市長胡志強表示，年輕人不了解事實就發表意見，建議大家多包容。

[Maddog translation:]
Taichung mayor Jason Hu said that people should be extra forgiving [of Demos Chiang], because young people will express their opinions without understanding the facts.

Demos Chiang is 31 years old. Would raising the voting age in Taiwan from 20 to, say, 40 please the KMT?

Who needs to grow up?
An editorial in Friday's Taipei Times titled "KMT elders should grow up" had this to say about the matter:

Is this what the KMT is about? A party that cannot tolerate dissenting opinions or listen to views voiced by young people?

Everyone in the country saw Lien's poor sportsmanship after his richly deserved defeat in the 2004 presidential election.

Demos Chiang merely wrote the truth, so why does the old guard of the KMT so quickly dismiss it as a youngster's lack of maturity and understanding?

The KMT, after losing power in Taiwan eight years ago to the Democratic Progressive Party, has since made attempts to strengthen its pro-localization stance as it tones down talk of eventual unification with China.

But winning people's hearts is more than just about adopting new party platforms. It requires a willingness to take in different opinions, especially from the younger generations.

After all, maturity does not necessarily come with age, and young people can often be critical thinkers with an acute understanding of history.

Just in case you aren't one of those who witnessed the behavior of Lien and his followers after losing that election, have a look at this video which mocks them thoroughly for being such sore losers.

Abuse of power?
In other news involving Mayor Hu, he is being accused of "abusing municipal resources to campaign for [...] Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)." This doesn't surprise me, because when Hu's vehicle had the accident in which his wife lost part of her left arm, he was using a city vehicle to campaign for Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英). As the bluer-than-blue World Journal (世界日報) tells us:

【本報台北十九日電】台中市長胡志強、邵曉鈴夫婦18日晚間7時50分在國道三號台南縣段出車禍，坐在公務休旅車第二排的邵曉鈴左手臂開放性骨折、顱內出血，一度昏迷，送柳營奇美醫院急救，醫師為了搶救性命，替她截肢。

胡志強夫婦18日晚南下為國民黨籍高雄市長候選人黃俊英助選，欲趕回為中華隊加油時，途中發生車禍，胡志強和隨扈等四人輕傷。

事發後，奇美醫院院長詹啟賢、副院長李浩銑立即趕到組成醫療團隊，晚間9時左右邵曉鈴被推入手術房，胡志強在門外焦急等待。

國道八隊獲報趕到現場，見台中市政府的深藍色公務休旅車在北上內側車道往左側翻，邵曉鈴全身是血，被抬到路肩等待救護車；與公務車擦撞的小客車則撞上內側車道護欄，駕駛人廖俊傑無大礙。

[Maddog translation of highlighted segments:]
At 7:50 PM on the 18th [of November 2006], Taichung mayor Jason Hu and his wife Shaw Hsiao-ling were involved in a traffic accident on the Tainan County section of National Highway Number 3. [...] On the evening of the 18th, Jason Hu and his wife headed south to help Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying with his campaign. [...] Upon receiving news [of the accident], the 8th Squadron sped to the scene and found a dark blue van belonging to the Taichung City Government [...]

We'll have to wait to find out if the latest accusation is true, but as the report above shows, Mayor Hu has done this sort of thing before.

24/7/365
Coincidentally, as I was closing the browser just after I found the above article, look what came up on my TV screen:

Much TV's 「今晚誰當家」("Who's the Boss Tonight?")
helps KMT politicians Jason Hu (胡志強) and Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋)
look like "regular guys" by showing how well they treat their wives.
(Note also the coincidental subtitle about "driving a nice car...")
Just more pan-blue brainwashing, if you ask me.