Decoding The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
If you know anything about Taiwan, you probably know that this place's history is… complicated. Because so many global powers have coveted this island for centuries, each foreign overlord left its own indelible marks on the island and its inhabitants. Understanding today’s Taiwan is no easy task. But if I were to pick a historical figure to epitomize the nuanced history of this island, it would be Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who ruled Taiwan as President of the Republic of China from 1950 to 1975. Although he may not be a household name today, Chiang was a towering political figure who altered the trajectory of the 20th century.
Aside from Taipei 101, the National Chaing Kai-shek Memorial Hall is the most recognizable landmark in Taipei.
As Taiwan has democratized over the last three decades, the physical traces of the generalissimo have all but disappeared. But there is one place in Taipei where his larger-than-life legacy still loomed. Located in the center of Taipei is the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂), a striking building complex dedicated to the former president. In light of the heightened awareness regarding Taiwan’s place in the world nowadays, I made a point of paying a visit during our recent trip to Taiwan. This memorial is not only a symbol of a historical era but also a subject of debate about the future of Taiwan.
An Abridged History of Chiang Kai-shek
For those who may not be aware, the official name of ‘Taiwan’ today is the Republic of China (or ROC). Established in 1911 after the fall of the Qing Empire, the Republic of China was universally accepted as the legitimate successor state of China and the first Chinese republic in history. Despite this international recognition, the stability of China under ROC was tenuous at best. The collapse of the imperial system brought forth widespread political and economic turmoils. Various military warlords ruled different regions of China. The situation further deteriorated with the emergence of Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a full-fledged invasion by Japan in 1937.
The National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
Statue of the “Father of the Nation” at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
The changing of the guards at National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Despite all these obstacles, the national government of ROC maintained its legal legitimacy under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the first president and the founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party (commonly known as the KMT). Regarded as the “Father of the Chinese Republic,” Sun was a political philosopher who devised the philosophy of Three Principles of the People (三民主義) and the Separation of Five Powers (五院制), both of which still govern the ROC to this day. By most accounts, Sun was and still is a popular figure for his political vision for post-imperial China. Like George Washington, he was a reluctant politician with little personal ambition. Historians often considered his “premature” death (at the age of 58) to be an impetus to the Chinese Civil War between the nationalists and the communists.
Greeting Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Following Sun’s death, a brutal and costly power struggle to claim his political mantel ensued. A young general named Chiang Kai-shek eventually won the leadership post within the KMT and became the most powerful politician in China. While he was triumphant in intra-party politics, growing tensions with the CCP eventually turned into a full-fledged civil war lasting 22 years. Chiang and the KMT eventually lost the war and fled to Taiwan in 1947, merely two years after Japan relinquished it following the defeat in WWII.
The retreat brought the national bureaucracy and a generation of China’s intellectual and economic elites to Taiwan. Items transported to the island were gold despots at the central bank and the most coveted treasures from the Forbidden City in Beijing. Losing China’s mainland to the communists was an enormous humiliation for Chiang. Under the one-party rule of the KMT, the government was adamant, asserting its claim over all of China. According to the national constitution, Nanjing on the mainland remains the country's official capital, with Taipei as the “provisional capital” or the “location of the central government.” Streets of Taiwanese cities are renamed after cities on the mainland.
The office of President Chiang Kai-shek was preserved and displayed inside the memorial hall museum.
Fearing the spread of Communism, Washington maintained political and material support for Chiang after the retreats to Taiwan. As more and more countries worldwide began to recognize the communist People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government of China, Chiang continued to represent the whole of China for the United States until its expulsion in 1971. Insanely, the government in Taipei held the veto power on the UN Security Council for 22 years. Eight years later, the United States also cut diplomatic ties with the Republic of China and recognized the government in Beijing as the legitimate representation of China. Washington nullified the mutual defense treaty with the Republic of China and replaced it with the Taiwan Relations Act, which served as a backbone of the unofficial relations that persists to this day.
An Icon of Chinese Nationalism
When Chiang passed away in 1975 at 89, an elaborate state funeral befitting an autocrat was held. To commemorate Chiang’s legacy permanently, the government proposed a massive memorial at the heart of Taipei, just a few blocks from the Presidential Office Building. For this prestigious commission, the committee turned to Yang Cho-cheng (楊卓成), the favorite architect of the former president. Educated in Tianjin, he was renowned for creating monumental structures with Chinese characteristics using reinforced concrete. His portfolio includes other noticeable Taipei landmarks such as the Grand Hotel, the Taiwan Central Bank Building, and the Shilin Official Residence.
The ceremonial gateway at the main entrance to the complex.
To create a fitting memorial, the government spared no expense. The 60-acre site was originally designated to be the site for a new central business district. The central memorial hall includes a subterranean museum and the presidential archive. There is also an enormous ceremonial archway and two enormous theaters in the palatial style typical of northern China. Amazingly, the entire project was completed just in time for five-year anniversary of the president’s passing.
The grandiosity of the memorial often surprises visitors. By all metrics, Chiang’s memorial is bigger and more flamboyant than Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Beijing. The memorial hall incorporates various elements of traditional Chinese architecture. The building’s blue terra cotta roof tiles and white marble walls are a nod to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing and represent the colors of the KMT party emblem. The multi-tiered roof structure has supposedly modeled the roof after Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, where past Chinese emperors would pray for divine protection.
The National Theater.
An oversized “stone drum” typically decorates the entry of a temple.
The National Concert Hall.
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is mighty impressive as far as memorial buildings go. Visitors are often surprised to learn that the former president was not buried here or being embalmed and displayed like the other autocrats of his generation. Instead, Chiang was buried in a small, secluded mausoleum an hour away from Taipei. Being a lifelong Chinese nationalist, Chiang considered his burial in Taiwan to be temporary. He hoped his remains could be transferred to his hometown in the mainland once the KMT party achieved the ultimate unification with the mainland.
The architectural design of the memorial hall is both Chinese and highly yet quite modern.
For those in the know, a part of the building is laced with political symbolism. For instance, there are 89 steps on the grand staircase; each represents one year of the generalissimo’s life. The building is also oriented toward Nanjing, China, which is still the official capital of ROC per the constitution. The main chamber of the memorial hall houses a seated statue of Chiang, which is eerily similar in design to the Lincoln statue of the Lincoln Memorial. On the walls behind him are excerpts from his political writing championing the “scientific progress, democracy, and reason” under his reign. Rounding off the architectural symbolism is a massive emblem of the KMT Party.
For most tourists, the highlight would be catching the changing of the ceremonial guards. During the opening hours, two soldiers from the ROC Military Police stand guard in front of the statue with full military regalia. Given how hot and humid it is in Taiwan for much of the year, this assignment is not for the faint-hearted. While changing the guards could be fun to witness, most visitors seem unaware that two sets of staircases lead visitors down to the museum buried below.
Member of the ROC Military Police standing guard.
Entry pavilion on the side of the campus.
This hidden museum is the core of this memorial complex in many respects. The museum exhibits numerous artifacts from Chiang’s life, ranging from his calligraphy to the luxury cars that chauffeured him around. Like most museums dedicated to an autocrat, like the Stalin Museum in Gori, on display are plenty of gifts the former president received from a wide array of foreign dignitaries. One important aspect of Chaing’s legacy that the exhibit aims to highlight is his role as a major Allied leader in World War II. Though he is forever remembered as the man who lost “free China” to the communists, he is also remembered for his resistance against the Japanese and as a valuable ally for Roosevelt and Churchill.
A Life Reexamined
In the contemporary press in the West, Chiang Kai-shek was often lauded for his resistance against the Communists. For many Taiwanese, he spared the island from the terror of red communism. Some accredit him for setting up a foundation for Taiwan’s economic miracles of the 1970s and 1980s. However, there is now a consensus that he ruled Taiwan as a ruthless autocrat during his tenure as president. Despite the democratic aspiration in the constitution, the government is a de facto one-party state due to the declaration of martial law during the Chinese Civil War. Since there was never a formal armistice between the two sides, Chiang asserted that the country was still in a state of war.
The architectural style of the National Theater is an echo of the palace architecture you would find in the Forbidden City.
Many constitutional guarantees, such as the freedom of assembly or expression, were curtained in the name of national security. And like many wartime leaders of the era, President Chiang developed a cult of personality. He was often called “Lord Chiang” in the public realm. Slogans glorifying his achievements could be found throughout the island, from the island’s school buildings to the opening reels at the movie theater. Songs and political texts celebrating him were incorporated into the official school curriculum; thousands of statues of him were erected at schools and public buildings. In addition, I could also remember that President Chiang’s birthday was an official holiday (先總統蔣公誕辰紀念日) when I was growing up.
The North Gate is the only imperial gate of Taipei that escaped the cultural vandalism of the KMT party.
Among the local Taiwanese population, the mass immigration of “mainlanders” after the retreat of the ROC government created a lot of political and ethnic resentment. Not only were mainlanders given preferential treatment in public sector jobs, but the new immigrants also controlled the levers of the economy. Because of Chiang’s emphasis on nationalist cultural orthodoxy, local Taiwanese dialects and the Japanese language were prohibited in the public realm. The KMT party saw distinctive Taiwanese identity as a danger to their effort for ultimate unification. For many ethnic Taiwanese like my grandparents, the policies of Chiang’s government were a form of cultural genocide.
The East Gate was substantially reconstructed in the northern Chinese style.
This glorification of Chinese orthodoxy was always at the expense of local Taiwanese traditions or culture. This cultural policy was manifested in architecture around the country. One prime example of cultural vandalism was the brutal “restoration” of Taipei’s imperial-era city gates. The government demolished the original Minnan-style city gate to be “reconstructed” in the northern Chinese palace architectural style familiar to Chiang. Ultimately, all but one city gate, the North Gate, retains its original appearance today. For this reason, many Taiwanese consider the ostentatious style of the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to be just another form of cultural imperialism.
The National February 28th Incident Memorial in Taipei.
The National February 28th Incident Memorial in Taipei.
With no meaningful political freedom, few dissidents dared to voice their opinions under Chiang’s rule. One of the most significant political incidents during this period took place in 1947. Known as the February 28 Incident, the mass protest movement by ethnic Taiwanese was brutally suppressed by the KMT government. The civilian casualties are estimated to be between 18,000 to 28,000. In the subsequent decades, mass arrests of Taiwanese dissidents and intellectuals became commonplace in what is commonly referred to as the White Terror (白色恐怖). The unintended consequence of this persistent persecution only bolstered
Ironically, the massive plaza of the memorial hall became a popular gathering place for political protest. It became ground zero of the political movement that prompted Chiang’s son and successor, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), to undertake a steady path toward reform economic and political liberalization. In 1990, a massive protest of the Wild Lily student movement at the square ultimately led to the first free and direct presidential elections in 1996. Since then, the legacy of Chiang Kai-shek has gone through a reassessment period.
Monument for the Victims of the White Terror in Taipei.
While Chiang’s cult of personality has disappeared, the status of the massive memorial hall remains a complicated topic. Sometimes referred to colloquially as the “Chiang Family Temple,” the building became a subject of restorative justice for many independent-minded Taiwanese. In 2007, President Chen Shui-bian, the first non-KMT president, ordered the rededication of the plaza as Liberty Square and renamed the memorial hall the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. For many KMT party members, the renaming was a brazen attempt to humiliate the Chiang family and to “erase” or reinvent the heritage of the Republic of China.
Ultimately, the name of the memorial hall was reverted back to Chiang Kai-shek’s name. However, the new name Liberty Square still remains to this day. As a compromise, a separate exhibition was set up within the museum space to provide a critique of Chiang’s legacy in Taiwan, including all the atrocities committed under his name. The dueling exhibitions vividly manifest the complexity of contemporary politics on the island.
The memorial complex is now a popular space for public recreation and cultural events.
The memorial complex is now a popular space for public recreation and cultural events.
I must admit that I was an early admirer of the architecture of this entire memorial complex when I was a kid, much to the displeasure of my parents and grandparents. It was not until I was older that I understood the political symbolism and historical complexity associated with these impressive-looking structures. Decoding the meaning of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall may be the best history lesson a visitor could have in Taiwan.
