Memory of the Chiang Dynasty

Abstract

This chapter looks at two sites dedicated to the memory of Chiang Kai-shek, the former KMT leader whose legacy in Taiwan today is rife with conflict. The focus of the first part of the chapter is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂‎), built in 1980 to honor the leader who died in 1975. But the green camp, when it was in political power, sought to “de-Chiang-ify” the site and transform it into a National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, which mounted exhibits decrying the violence and repression of the Chiang regime. The second is the Two Chiangs Culture Park (兩蔣文化園區‎), a site born of a marketing strategy to combine the Chiang Kai-shek Mausoleum (which Chiang’s body is entombed) and the Chiang Ching-kuo Mausoleum (where the son of Chiang is entombed) to attract more tourists, in particular tourists from the mainland.