The commission on Wednesday last week announced initial plans for erasing traces of authoritarianism from the memorial hall, starting with its “axis of worship,” or the 6.3m-tall bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in the main building. The front gate to Liberty Square frames the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Oct. 28 last year. “The nation should not be spending so many resources to commemorate an authoritarian ruler,” the commission said, adding that original plans for the space did not even include a memorial hall. Under the party-state system created by Chiang, all political and military power was controlled by one individual, the commission said. The memorial should be given back to the people and reinterpreted to inspire education about the nation’s past, it added.

Source: Taipei Times September 12, 2021 15:56 UTC