Mother and son memorials

Overlooking Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan is the Ci'en Pagoda. It was built in the early 1970s, by Chiang Kai-shek, in honour of his mother. Presumably this was for her role in giving the world the great generalissimo himself.

We were taken there on one of our easy-tourist days. We climbed the double-helix staircase and admired the views of the lake. Guide Simon told us all about the bad old days of Chiang's corrupt military dictatorship. (And the contrasting enlightenment of the current democracy.)








In Taipei I checked out the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the adjoining Memorial Hall Square. It's quite a tourist attraction, and every hour, on the hour, you get to see the changing of the guard. They do an extraordinary little dance with each other for a good five minutes before completing the show. The square is a large and grand space - a sort of Taiwanese Tiananmen Square.

I've mentioned before that Taiwan has a robust democracy these days, so everything's no doubt contested. But I understand there have often been moves to dismantle the various Chiang Kai-shek memorials, whereas in mainland China he's been largely rehabilitated. It's been said he would have approved of what China has become, while Mao would have hated it - even though Mao had got to be in charge, and Chiang had had to run away.

And in Taiwan, his former party, the KMT, is now the opposition party and wants closer ties with the communist mainland. The governing progressive coalition is the side that doesn't.

Further to the subject of Chiang and his legacy: we'd noticed how much Japanese culture and food still permeates Taiwan, and that there seemed to be an absence of the anti-Japanese sentiment that still exists in other places that had been occupied by them. This is seemingly put down to the fact that when Chiang Kai-shek took over from them after WW2, his regime was so unpleasant that it made the Japanese period look good by comparison.