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Publications Topics Archive Topics Archive 2007 Vol.37- No.6 228 Peace Park: Repository of History
Publications Topics Archive Topics Archive 2007 Vol.37- No.6 228 Peace Park: Repository of History | 228 Peace Park: Repository of History |
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228 Peace Park: Repository of History For a perspective on Taiwanese history and a slice of contemporary culture, take a stroll around the 228 Peace Park in downtown Taipei. The park not only contains two museums, but in a sense can itself be considered an open-air museum. Located about a 10-minute walk south of the Taipei Main Station, the park provides a haven for weary travelers with an hour or two to spare when changing trains. The tall palms and other trees offer shade, the carp-filled lake and four other ponds keep the temperature a few degrees lower than that of the surrounding shopping, business, and cram-school district, and the raised pavilions catch any breeze wafting in the air. It is also an oasis of quiet. Not surprisingly, the park is therefore also a great attraction to local shoppers, workers, and students - many of whom come every day, even if just to eat their lunch - and also to a variety of special interest groups: martial arts enthusiasts, bird and squirrel feeders, ballroom dancers, and many others. After dark it is popular for romantic assignations, particularly among gay men. Due to their daily familiarity with those surroundings, these various local users of the park may now be oblivious to the final strand that brings the park's warp and weft together. This is its use as a repository, almost a dumping ground, for historical artifacts displaced during development of the city. For the first-time visitor, however, these items are at least noteworthy and in some cases of great interest. Entering the park from the main entrance at the junction of Xiangyang Street and Guanqian Road and then turning east, for example, visitors will come across a selection of inscribed stone stele, followed by two torii - ceremonial archways that marked the boundary of the divine territory of a Shinto temple from the profane world outside - dating from the period of Japanese occupation (1895-1945). Under Japanese rule, around 400 Shinto shrines were erected in Taiwan for use by the expatriate Japanese who ran the government and private businesses, and for the conversion of local Taiwanese during the Japanification movement of the later colonial period. These two torii, which are small and simple, were moved into the park in the postwar period when Shinto shrines were torn down; most others were destroyed. Twenty yards to the south, there is a collection of stone implements - millstones for grinding peanuts, sugar cane, and so forth, as well as feeding troughs that are hotly contested for use as seats and tables by local office workers at lunchtime. To the east is a much larger arch, which nevertheless could almost go unnoticed to foreigners if they cannot read Chinese. The nearby plaque explains that it is a Monumental Archway to Wifely Duty constructed in 1882 to honor a Mrs. Huang who had refused remarriage for 45 years after being widowed at the age of 28. Given that the then-named New Park was built in 1899 as a goodwill gesture by the new colonial government to the people of Taipei City, it is clear that archway was also brought to the park from elsewhere. This is true of most if not all of the historical artifacts, which found a new home in the park over its 100-year history as their original sites one-by-one succumbed to urban designers' plans, new roads, and most recently the mass rapid transit system. Passing under Mrs. Huang's arch brings one to the Apricot Platform, a memorial to Confucius, China's "first teacher" and probably its most influential. His statue dominates this northeast corner of the park, and he is accorded the imperial honor of standing with his back to the north. First within his gaze is the Cuiheng Pavilion, built in classical Chinese style. Its name refers to Cuiheng Village in Guangdong Province, birthplace of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, co-founder of the Kuomintang (KMT) and author of the "Three Principles of the People." This is surrounded by a small pond, which features a fountain display, and then at a greater distance by four smaller pavilions, each containing a bust of a Taiwanese hero. The first of these four is Lord of Yanping (延平郡王), better known in Taiwan as Zheng Cheng-gong (鄭成功), and better known to the West as Koxinga (國姓爺). Born in Kyushu Japan in 1624, he resisted the Manchurian Qing court, which took over most of China in 1644, retreating to Taiwan in 1660. This necessitated kicking the Dutch out of their colony at Tainan, for which he is esteemed as a national hero. He died the next year, but his successors resisted the Qing until 1683. The second of the group is Liu Ming-chuan (劉銘傳, 1836-1896) from Anhui Province, a Qing dynasty official appointed as Taiwan's first governor when it became a province in 1885; he is still respected for his efforts at modernization, including building the island's first railway. The others are Lien Ya-tang (連雅堂; 1878-1936) an influential poet, author of "A Comprehensive History of Taiwan," and grandfather of Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the KMT; and Chiu Feng-chia (丘逢甲; 1864-1912), poet, educator, Qing dynasty official, opponent of Taiwan's cession to Japanese rule, and representative in Sun Yat-sen's provisional national government. Chiu was born in Taiwan's Miaoli County and died in Guangdong Province, China. (Three of the four honorees have also had universities named for them in Taiwan. The National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Feng Chia University in Taichung and Ming Chuan University in Taipei are named after Koxinga (Zheng Cheng-gong), Chiu Feng-chia, and Liu Ming-chuan respectively.) Near the last of the pavilions is a toilet block, a couple of automated drinks machines, and the park's east entrance, which is shared with the NTU Hospital MRT Station's No. 1 exit. The lines of a badminton court are painted on a pathway slightly further south. Badminton is probably the only sports game (as opposed to martial arts and games such as chess) played in the park, although it never seems to be played "properly" - that is, with a net. Why the badminton players choose this area and no other is hard to say, but the park's various users always congregate in their respective territories and seem to avoid trespassing on one another's space. The next piece of turf belongs to the Falun Gong, who sometimes sit in meditation and sometimes perform synchronized martial-art-like moves, but who spend most of their time handing out leaflets and explaining gruesome pictures said to show immoral organ removals on their members by Chinese doctors in the PRC. Continuing clockwise, that is, still heading south, one comes to an open area under sparsely planted trees. This belongs to various martial artists at different times of the day, though it is shared by an elderly gentleman who feeds the birds and squirrels residing in the trees. Remembering the 1947 incident To the southeast is the first of the park's two museums, or rather the second, if considered in terms of year of construction. Although the building housing the 228 Memorial Museum was first built by the Japanese colonial administration in 1930 to be used as the Taipei Broadcasting Bureau - renamed the Taiwan Broadcasting Bureau by the incoming KMT-led administration in 1945 - it did not become a museum until 1997. It did, however, play a role in the 228 Incident, as it was used for the dissemination of official public messages. The Incident, which began on February 28, 1947 with the beating by a policeman of a vendor of contraband cigarettes and the shooting of a bystander after witnesses tried to intervene, set off political waves felt for decades. The immediate aftermath was a major crackdown on all forms of dissent, in which thousands were killed. That led to prolonged ethnic strife between the native Taiwanese population, then numbering about 6 million, and the 1 million or so "mainlanders" who arrived in 1949 following the KMT's loss to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War. The museum, which has been improved greatly during its 10-year existence, displays a variety of historical and cultural information and artifacts relating to the incident itself and the subsequent 38 years of martial law that lasted from 1949 to 1987. Entrance costs only NT$20, but the downside is that almost none of the voluminous information is translated into English. Vincent Lin, a volunteer guide, offers English-language tours on Tuesday afternoons and at other times by prior arrangement. To the south of the museum entrance is the park's only restaurant, half of whose seats are outdoors under a leafy canopy. Patrons need to book or come early as the seats are taken quickly. At the southernmost point of the park is an entrance from Ketagalan Boulevard, which Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin has threatened to rename "Anti-Corruption Road" after Shih Ming-teh's red-shirted campaign, in retaliation for President Chen Shui-bian's administration renaming the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall the "National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" in May. To the west of this entrance is a children's playground, and to the north, near a bell donated by a local Lions group, is a pebble pathway that is supposed to massage the feet, curing ills in various organs of the body, when walked upon back and forth in stocking feet. From this area running northward is a variety of works of public art, starting with a penguin standing next to a fountain, then the 228 Memorial itself, and culminating at the back of the National Taiwan Museum with another pond decorated with other various birds and beasts. The memorial, which marks the center of the park, is composed of three large concrete cubes beneath a spire-like structure. According to the park's promotional materials, the three cubes symbolize autonomous individuals, but united, they support the spire above, suggesting that prosperity can only be achieved by collective action. Inside the cubes, visitors can cross a small pond by means of stepping-stones. Here, water cascades between a circular bi (璧) and square cong (琮), ancient Han Chinese cosmic symbols representing the "round heaven and square earth." From the children's playground, one passes a horse statue - much beloved by parents for photographing their children - and around a corner, another ceremonial archway. This one dates from 1888, and was erected by Governor Liu Ming-chuan to honor donations of land and money by a certain Hong Teng-yun (洪騰雲; 1819-1899), a businessman in what is now the Wanhua district of Taipei. Beyond the arch is the park's only extant shrine. Dedicated primarily to the Lord of the Land, often also called the Earth God (土地公, Tu Di Gong), it contains statues of several dozen Daoist deities, including Mazu (媽祖), the fishermen's protective goddess; Guan Gong (關公), a virtuous general of the Three Kingdoms Period (A.D. 222-265), and the God of Wealth (財神). Buddhism is represented by the Sakyamuni Buddha himself, and the Bodhisattva Guanyin (觀音), "Hearer of Cries." Next to this shrine, facing eastward, is an open-air stage with seating for several hundred. Designed for musical concerts, this year it is more likely to be used for political rallies. North of here is the lake, one of the most popular areas of the park - with children and their grandparents feeding carp by day (although the automated machines selling fish food have recently been removed) and by spooning couples at night. Past more martial art practitioners and another toilet block, two nineteenth-century steam trains shelter in the northwest corner. "Mounting on the Cloud," which shares the same given name as the above-mentioned Mr. Hong, was the island's first train. Imported from Germany, it was used between 1888 and 1924. The train to its east, "No. 9," is even older, having been used first in Japan and only arriving in Taiwan with the Japanese administration in 1895. The area further east is currently awaiting redevelopment; passing through it brings one back to the park's main entrance. This is also the entrance to the park's main museum. Started in 1908 to commemorate inauguration of the North-South Railway, it opened as the Taiwan Governor Museum in 1915, making it the island's oldest museum. After Taiwan retrocession, it became the Taiwan Provincial Museum, and since 1999 has been the National Taiwan Museum. At NT$20 per person, ticket prices have changed little over the decades. Most of the museum space is used for temporary exhibitions, such as the fascinating "Fieldwork, Artifacts, Drafting: The Multi-faceted World of Dr. Chen Chi-lu's Ethnological Drawings," which is on until mid-October. Its permanent exhibitions also include a good introduction to Taiwan's numerous aboriginal groups, which is certainly worth a visit, especially for those without half a day to go up to the Sheng Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines opposite the National Palace Museum. |
