Source: Global Times
[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Lifei] November 12th is the 156th anniversary of Mr. Sun Yat-sen's birth. But on October 28, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party issued an amendment to the "Opinion Regulations" requiring future public officials to no longer have to salute Sun Yat-sen's portrait when taking office. In fact, since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2000, it has vigorously promoted the " de-Chenghua " while also promoting the "de-Sun Yat-senization", and these are all part of its "de-Sinicization".
proposal requires no more oaths on portraits
According to Taiwan's "Central News Agency" report on the 28th, Article 5 of Taiwan's current "Opinion Regulations" stipulates that oaths should be carried out publicly at the place designated by the office or at the superior authority. The oath person stands up to the portrait of Sun Yat-sen, raises his right hand and stretches up his palm, releases his five fingers together, and moves forward his palms and reads the oath. Democratic Progressive Party’s legislator Lin Chuyin and others proposed to amend the “Opinion Regulations” this week. If the amendment is passed, public officials will not have to take oaths to Sun Yat-sen’s portrait in the future. Lin Chuyin claimed that taking the oath was not obeying a specific leader, and this move was no longer in line with the current political development in Taiwan.
KMT party group questioned that this is a concrete example of the Democratic Progressive Party pointing its finger at Mr. Sun Yat-sen after "destroying Chiang", and it is even more intentional to manipulate ideology under the banner of "Taiwanese subject" consciousness, and the party group will oppose it to the end. At the Legislative Yuan meeting on October 28, the Kuomintang caucus proposed to return Lin Chuyin's proposal to the Procedure Committee and re-proposed. The "legislators" present had no objection, so the proposal was returned. Kuomintang legislator Zeng Mingzong said that Taiwanese authorities did not swear to Sun Yat-sen's portrait, "This makes no sense and is not appropriate."
Sun Yat-sen had an indissoluble bond with Taiwan during his lifetime and had been to Taiwan four times. The first trip to Taiwan lasted for a long time, lasting 44 days. He commanded the "Huizhou Uprising" in Taipei and also had frequent contact with comrades from the Taiwan Branch of Xingzhonghui to sow the spark of revolution. The second time was after the failure of launching the "Second Revolution" to launch a military campaign against Yuan in 1913. Sun Yat-sen was wanted. In August of the same year, with the help of Japanese friends, he arrived at Keelung from Mawei, Fujian. While in Taipei, Sun Yat-sen stayed in a hotel called "Meiyashiki" and met with old Tongmeng members in Taiwan here. Sun Yat-sen's third trip to Taiwan was in June 1918, and he took Taipei to Japan from Shantou. Due to obstruction by the Japanese colonial authorities, he only stayed in Taipei for one night and left the next day. Mr. Sun Yat-sen's last trip to Taiwan was in November 1924 when he was sick and headed north through Keelung, Taiwan, but he did not get ashore.
Many Taiwanese people have deep feelings for Sun Yat-sen. Sun Yat-sen passed away on March 12, 1925. After the news reached Taiwan, the then Taiwan Min Daily published an editorial "Crying to the Great Man from the World", and Taiwanese students wrote an elegiac couplet: "Three million Taiwan has just woken up, who is the leader of Mr. Wei? Forty years of the motherland's career has not been completed, who will share the burden!" Two days later, the Taipei Patriotic Society convened a memorial service, and more than 5,000 citizens participated in the rain. After the Kuomintang arrived in Taiwan, the island's public organs, schools and other official places would have their own portraits of Sun Yat-sen. There are many parks, roads and buildings in various parts of Taiwan named "Zhongshan". For example, the guild hall in Taipei during the Japanese colonial period was renamed "Zhongshan Hall". In 1972, the Taiwanese authorities built the solemn Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on Ren'ai Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City. Every year on his birthday and death day, large-scale commemoration activities are organized in all parts of Taiwan.
excuses to pull out the "meat thorn"
However, after Chen Shui-bian came to power, in order to step up the so-called "de-Sinicization", he began to work on Sun Yat-sen. On the one hand, he tried his best to portray him as "Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang" to intensify the "provincial conflict"; on the other hand, he gradually lowered the specifications of commemorative activities. In 2006, Chen Shui-bian urgently stopped Sun Yat-sen's birthday commemoration. In June of the following year, Taiwan's "Hakka Committee" passed a resolution to take down the wills hanging by Sun Yat-sen's portraits at all levels. As for the reason why the will was "taken down", some Taiwanese media pointed out incisively that the word "China" in "I have been committed to the National Revolution for 40 years, and my purpose is to seek freedom and equality in China" undoubtedly violates the "taboo" of the Democratic Progressive Party.
During the Ma Ying-jeou period, the actions of "Taiwan independence" elements against Sun Yat-sen did not stop. In February 2014, the "independence" group "Referendum on Protection of Taiwan Alliance" mobilized more than 200 people to the Tang Dezhang Memorial Park in Tainan City. On the grounds of "on-site testing of the safety strength of the Sun Yat-sen bronze statue base", climbed the bronze statue about three stories high, used two thick ropes to cover the neck of the bronze statue, and sprayed paint. Then, as supporters shouted slogans such as "Transformation justice cannot wait", more than ten people worked together to pull the rope and pull down the bronze statue of more than 600 kilograms. Some people even stepped on the head of the bronze statue and made a victory gesture to take pictures.
After Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, she immediately announced the cancellation of the ceremony of worshiping the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. A spokesperson for Tsai Ing-wen's office claimed that the move was intended to "de-feudalize." Taiwan's "Central Daily" online newspaper refuted that "transformation justice" is a measure to expose, investigate, rehabilitate and compensate for the improper actions of the "authoritarian system", but what does Mr. Sun Yat-sen have to do with the "authoritarian system" of the Kuomintang after 1949, and what does it have to do with "transformation justice"? At the same time, his pursuit of democracy is unquestionable. "It is really unreasonable to regard such a person who pursues democracy as a symbol of feudalism."
Some public opinion analysis said that the DPP regards Sun Yat-sen as a thorn in his eyes and a thorn in his flesh because his proposition on establishing a unified China is completely different from the DPP's "Taiwan independence" party program. He once said, "If China cannot recover Taiwan, it will not be able to stand on the earth." When talking about the issue of unification, Sun Yat-sen pointed out: "China is a unified country, and this point has been firmly imprinted in our historical consciousness. It is this consciousness that has preserved us as a country, although it has encountered many destructive forces in the past."
may disappear from textbooks
Compared with the actions of pushing down bronze statues, the content about Sun Yat-sen was deleted in the textbooks, which had a more profound impact. In the Taiwanese academic community, the definition of " 1911 Revolution " led by Sun Yat-sen is divided into narrow and broad meanings. The former refers to the establishment of the Wuchang Uprising from October 10, 1911 to the New Year's Day of 1912, and the broad meaning is to the establishment of the Xingzhonghui in 1894.
Professor Wu Kuncai of Chiayi University in Taiwan analyzed the past five versions of Taiwan's junior high school history textbooks, saying that the textbook in 1964 was presented with two chapters, 17 pages, with more than 6,000 words in the background, process and results of the "Xinhai Revolution", and praised Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary achievements. By 1983, it was reduced to 1 chapter and 10 pages, but there were still 2,497 words. After Lee Teng-hui took office, there was a "watershed". In the 1994 junior high school history textbook, the content of the "Xinhai Revolution" was cut in half, and the situation later became even worse. In the 2012 version, there are only 472 characters in a broad sense, and only 212 characters in a narrow sense; in 2020, there are only 364 characters in a broad sense, and 139 characters in a narrow sense. This directly led to the students on the island having only a little understanding of the "Xinhai Revolution". Of course, there is no way to construct historical views, and it is even more impossible to have any respect or recognition of this history. Wu Kuncai said that what is very important about history is to take "people" as the concept, "but Sun Yat-sen is now preparing a picture in textbooks," and treats him as a foreigner. Zhao Shaokang, chairman of "China Guangxi", once revealed that the founder of Hon Hai , said that his daughter does not know who Yue Fei is, and said bluntly that middle school students do not know that Yue Fei and Sun Yat-sen are the result of the deliberate "de-Sinicization" of the DPP authorities. Public opinion is concerned that the three words "Sun Yat-sen" may "completely disappear" from Taiwan's history textbooks.
Some public opinion on the island said that the Green Camp promoted the "de-Sun Yat-sen transformation" after the "de-Chianghuanization", which was an attempt to use the practice of "cultural Taiwan independence and ideological Taiwan independence" to eventually move towards "Taiwan independence". Other analysts said that Sun Yat-sen is an important link between the history and emotions of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and the DPP’s “de-Sun Yat-senization” may have a negative impact on promoting cross-strait exchanges. Zhu Ou, director of the Taiwan Foundation for Development of the Chinese Nation, once said, "If Taiwanese people really forget Sun Yat-sen and forget that their husband pursues the great ideal of national rejuvenation and national prosperity and strength, it would be too stupid!"
