Word: chiangs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Eager to put the island's militarist past to bed, and eager to distance itself further from the Chinese mainland, from which Chiang hailed, Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is in the process of erasing the Generalissimo from public view. Late last year, Chiang's name was uncoupled from that of the capital's international airport, and, in February, his statues were removed from all military bases. Then, in a stealthy overnight raid, the DPP-led local government of Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second city, dismantled a huge Chiang presiding over the city's cultural center and secreted...
...last Saturday that the independence-leaning administration of President Chen Shui-bian executed the coup de grace. In an iconoclastic ceremony that took place under the protection of riot police, Chen officially changed the name of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a massive blue-and-white monument occupying a swathe of central Taipei, to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. Inside, a new exhibition to commemorate Taiwan's democracy movement, entitled "Goodbye, President Chiang," was being prepared for unveiling. Outside, scuffles took place between police and several hundred protesters loyal to Chiang's memory...
...Monday all was quiet, but rearguard actions are being fought. Legislators belonging to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT)-the party Chiang headed for 50 years on both sides of the Taiwan Strait until his death in 1975 at the age of 87-have called the hall's name change illegal, auguring a protracted courtroom battle. Taipei's Mayor Hau Lung-bin, also of the KMT, has vowed to fight any moves to dismantle a giant statue of Chiang that stands at the building, declaring it a protected historical site. He is part of a core of KMT politicians-and a surviving...
...Ironically, Taiwan's Tourism Bureau has hatched a plan to keep the dictator's memory alive for the one group of people who seem genuinely interested (KMT diehards aside). Chiang-themed tour packages will target mainland Chinese, who are invariably curious about Mao's nemesis. Perhaps they could include the statue at my local park on the itinerary. In this rendition, a grandfatherly Chiang wears a traditional Chinese tunic and leans on a cane. If ever his legacy needed propping...
...face it. It has been ages since adjectives like "sleepy" or "charming" have been attached to Chiang Mai. For years, Thailand's second city has been grappling with the same environmental problems as Bangkok (explosive population growth, unsightly sprawl, heavily polluted air and incessant traffic) with little of the capital's cosmopolitan sheen to compensate-except, that is, in the area of housewares, crafts and design, where Chiang Mai still maintains an edge. Reputedly Thailand's artistic capital, it enjoys perennial influxes of expatriate and local artists, gallery operators and designers attracted to the long traditions of craftsmanship...