Was emailing a taiwanese girl (much younger) about life in taiwan in the 70s for tommy and the subject came up about society and the rise of the DPP starting with the kaohsiung riot in 79.
Anyone of you been through those times? Thoughts? I remember the rise of the DPP as a troubling time for Taiwan in the sense that the applecart was needlessly being rocked. The protests went on for many years , in kaohsiung and later all major cites in taiwan very much including taipei where DPP protesters stopped all rail traffic into taipei station for many days IIRC. The yellow anti rioter water trucks (basically airport crash tenders) became a common sight all over taiwan.
this person Linda was quite disliked by anyone not DPP in those days for being a well known foreign activist.
but thinking back i think she should have gotten credit for being a âreal child of taiwanâ in my book.She went to my school but she graduated before i attended.
your thoughts? experiences during those times in taiwan anyone?
First of all, during the Kaohsiung protest (aka Formosa Magazine protest) the DPP did not exist. Under the 4 decade long martial law, and the KMT/Chiang family dictatorship, no opposition party was allowed. So there were just a loosely affiliated pro-democracy movement called Tangwai (黚ć€, outside the party), which only had the goal of having real multi-party elections in common.
Linda Arrigo and her relationship with Shih Ming-teh was very important in pushing forward the democratizing process. Linda made the KMTâs cruelty known outside of Taiwan and just by advocating freeing Shih, and telling what the KMT did to Shih and his family was enough to illustrate the KMTâs evil nature. Things like beating Shihâs dentist father during 228 for no reason at all to the point of being disabled and dying when Shih was still a kid, to beating Shih for being a political dissident, deliberately breaking every single one of his tooth as a mean of interrogation, all were just brutal and cruel.
The people who stood up, even daring to attend those pro-democracy protests were putting the safety and future of themselves and their family in danger, and they bled, stood trials, and served time to fight for Taiwanâs democracy. Without them, and the political pressure advocates from the US put on the KMT government, CCK wouldnât have allowed the DPP to be formed in 1986, LTH wouldnât have been the vice-president when CCK died, and Taiwan never would have had a peaceful transition from a police state into a real democracy.
Her, NÌg SĂŹn-kĂ i (é»äżĄä») and many of the people in the Tangwai movement should be considered as the founders of modern Taiwan, instead, LTH alone seems to have been given all the credit. Not to diminish what LTH achieved within the system, and cleverly navigating hostile political landscape to achieve the peaceful transition to democracy, but without the sacrifice of those actually doing the marching, staring down police, secret police disguised as civilians, and mobsters paid to stir shit up for the policeâs false flag operations, none of what LTH achieved could have happened.