Taiwan's Cihu Sculpture Park: Welcome to the one man show

in TravelFeed • 3 years ago (edited)

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Maybe it is one of the bizarres places all over the world, very shure one of the strangest and cruelest: Imagine you're standing on a green meadow between more than 200 statues – and all of them are showing the same face, the same smile, the same eyes and brows.

A smiling man with an iron fistA smiling man with an iron fist

Welcome to the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park, a very mad circus of an once very powerful man. Here you will see 227 statues of Chiang Kai-shek, the former founder and long time president of Taiwan, the Republic of China, a small island at the end of the world.

Here he is in a huge format...Here he is in a huge format...

Father and Generalissimo

Kai-shek (蔣介石) once was the father of this republic, a Generalissimo and hard working anti-communist who ruled the small China with an iron hand. And the son of a wine dealer loved it to see his own face all along the country and for this reason Taiwan is still full of reminders of the authoritarian era under his government.

He’s blue in this sculptureHe's blue in this sculpture

1,814 sites, monuments and office spaces named in memory of him, an average of one for every 20km2 in the whole nation. And in addition 1,235 monuments, statues, sculptures and large-frame portraits commemorating the father of the nation and father of succesor Chiang Ching-kuo.

... as you can see here... as you can see here

But after Chiang Kai-sheks death the statues of him were more and more unwanted for public spaces in Taiwan. Protesters paint them on, they broke some of them into parts and after the era of Kai-sheks son Ching-kuo the government decided to transport some 200 statues of the late autocratic leader to the quiet sanctuary of a park near his mausoleum in the north of the island.

And red in this one.And red in this one.

Sitting, riding, reading

This is what they now call the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park in Taoyuan (or Dayuan). Here you can see Chiang Kai-shek sitting and riding, standing and looking, reading, smiling and walking. He do it in stone, in copper, in red, in grey and in black.

The man with the stick.The man with the stick.

He wears a hat or a uniform, a suit or he has a leash. All over the country the government has already eliminated nearly 70 percent of Chiang Kai-Shek statues and other symbols of authoritarianism in Taiwan. But at Cihu the semi-dictatorship of yore condenses into a one man show of once-omnipresent statues of the late dictator.

He can talk to himself.He can talk to himself.

In other countries this kind of documents of the past have been attacked by activists or removed to dump, in Taiwan, former know as Formosa, the symbols of Taiwan’s authoritarian era have to be supposed to be removed too, renamed or “handled in other ways”.

Chiang Kai-shek in the middle of Chiang Kai-sheksChiang Kai-shek in the middle of Chiang Kai-sheks

But in her second life the statues of Chiang Kai-shek, removed from different locations around the nation, are new stars for thousands of visitors: They´ve been reborn as the centre of a very hot touristic hot spot close to his mausoleum.

A few more pictures for you: 

Here he is reading a book, maybe written by himself.Here he is reading a book, maybe written by himself. He’s like the grandfahter of the nation.He's like the grandfahter of the nation. But he loved himself most at all.But he loved himself most at all. Everlasting greetings from the dictator.Everlasting greetings from the dictator. He as a torso.He as a torso. He’s riding.He's riding. He turns his back to himself.He turns his back to himself. A throne for a man in red.A throne for a man in red.
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3 years ago in TravelFeed by
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     3 years ago  

    The history of Chiang Kai-shek is very interesting. How many statues and in all of them he is happy, so as not to be forgotten.

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       3 years ago  

      He looks likehe's happy I think. But was he? Nobody knows.

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         3 years ago  

        Congratulations @koenau! You received the biggest smile and some love from TravelFeed! Keep up the amazing blog. 😍 Your post was also chosen as top pick of the day and is now featured on the TravelFeed.io front page.

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           3 years ago  

          Thank you so much for your support!

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             3 years ago  

            Interesting stuff!
            Better than famous Vax museums :)

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               3 years ago  

              A truly one man show ;-)

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