Professor Wan-yao Chou (周婉窈), of Department of History, National Taiwan University, expresses her reaffirmations of Taiwan's pursuit of democracy and freedom and the efforts to understand its past, and her refusal of a superimposed historical narrative, in a commemorative article written for the 28th anniversary of Dr. Chen Wen-cheng's death. Dr. Chen is believed to be a political victim of Taiwan's Martial Law government, but his case has never been seriously investigated even as of today.
The full text of Professor Chou's article, in Mandarin Chinese, can be found here. Here is a tentative English translation of the ending paragraphs:
民主、自由和人權，有可能成為臺灣社會如磐石般的核心價值嗎？過去一年多以來，一方面臺灣民主自由體制似乎出現逆轉的危機，另一方面，從去年三月十四日以來，中國對西藏的鎮壓持續不斷，因此臺灣的遊行、靜坐、絕食等活動似乎非常頻繁。我認為，在每次支持西藏、中國、緬甸，以及世界其他地區的自由人權活動中，我們再度肯定我們的價值所在，強化我們捍衛它的決心。
Democracy, freedom and human rights. Do these have a chance to become Taiwan's core values, values that become a house built on a rock? For over a year now, the democratic institutions and the freedoms in Taiwan are eroded. At the same time, since March 14, 2008, the Chinese government has been continuing its oppressions in Tibet. A lot of demonstrations, sit-in's and hunger strikes against such oppressions have taken place in Taiwan. I do think that, every time we stand by these human rights campaigns in Tibet, China, Burma and many other places in the world, we reaffirm what we value, and we strengthen our determination to defend these values.
臺灣是一個奇怪的地方，運氣特壞。我自己研究歷史，可能所知有限，但好像還沒看過一個類似的例子。一八九五年，這個遠在中國東南海上的「蕞爾小島」，未遭中日戰火波及，卻突然被清廷「永遠讓與日本」。臺灣人不接受這樣的命運，為了保鄉衛土，浴血抵抗，但欠缺奧援，最後只有認命。在日本統治半世紀之後，經歷近代化和殖民地化的複雜歷史過程，在絕大多數人毫無心理準備之下，又突然被盟軍交給中國。如果這個中國是個統一的中國，或許還好，臺灣人誰又知道「國共鬥爭」呢？戰後初期臺灣的漢人知識分子和青年怎麼懂得這些呢？原住民更是無從了解了。沒想到國民黨被中共打敗，「播遷來臺」，以統治一國的軍政情治裝備支配這個島嶼，臺灣捲入「國土分裂」下的國共鬥爭中，成為反共抗俄的復興基地。我們這一代人在黨國教育下成長，終於了解到何謂「國共鬥爭」，沒想到六十年後，不共載天的國共兩黨竟然熱絡攜手合作！好像歷史特意嘲弄臺灣人。
Taiwan is an odd place, as if star-crossed. I'm a researcher of history, my knowledge has its limits, but so far I don't see another place that has similar history. The island, situated in sea south-east of China and seen as a "minuscule, negligible island", was never involved in the Sino-Japanese War, but was "perpetually ceded to Japan" by the Qing government. Many Taiwanese didn't accept such fate. They sacrificed to defend their land, but to no avail because they didn't have any outside support. They couldn't but accept the fate. Then, after half a century of the Japanese rule, after the complex historical process of modernization and colonization, just as hardly anyone was prepared for that, Taiwan was handed again to China by the Allies. It might have turned out better if the China to which Taiwan was handed had been a unified China—for which Taiwanese would know what the Kuomintang (KMT)-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Struggle was really about? How would Han intellectuals and youths in Taiwan during the early post-war days know that? Let alone the indigenous people. They didn't anticipate that Kuomintang was defeated by the Communists, and "temporarily moved the government to Taiwan". They didn't anticipate that Kuomintang would dominate Taiwan with a military, political and intelligence apparatus designed for ruling one big country. They didn't anticipate that Taiwan became involved in the KMT-CCP Struggle whose central theme was a "split country". And they didn't anticipate Taiwan became the "Resurgence Base" in the anti-Communist and anti-USSR front. Just as when our generation, growing up under such a party-state education system, finally learns the truth about the KMT-CCP Struggle, how shocked we are now to learn that the two parties, archrivals of the past, are now hand-in-hand flirting with each other! It seems History likes mocking us Taiwanese.
此刻的臺灣，尚待定義。不，更確切來說，正面臨重新被定義的危機。或許，我們好不容易獲致的多元文化的思考，將再度一統化；或許，我們的子孫將在課堂上大聲誦讀：「臺灣自古就是中國神聖不可分割的領土，西藏也是、新疆也是。」或許，那個外於臺灣歷史過程的偉大史觀終將再度決定我們怎樣思考、看待這塊土地的過去。陳文成三十一歲的死亡，無庸說，再無究明真相的可能；他被迫縮短的人生也將不具任何意義。解嚴以來的歲月也將成為暗黑長路中偶現的光景，如夢幻泡影，如露亦如電。
Taiwan at this moment awaits defining. No, more precisely, Taiwan is facing a crisis of coerced redefinition. It could be probable that the diversity and the freedom of thought, things which we finally manage to enjoy, would once again become homogenized. It could be also probable that our posterity would read loudly in class: "Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory since antiquity. And so is Tibet. And so is Xinjiang." It could be probable that the Grand Historical View that was outside of Taiwan's historical process would come back and once again determine how we think and see our land's past. The truth about Dr. Chen's death at 31, needless to say, would then become an impossibility. His involuntarily shortened life would also become meaningless. The light that was shed on the long, dark road of the Martial Law years would turn out to be an illusion, a dream, a morning dew, a short lightening in the sky.
如果我們不要這些「或許」成真，那麼，我們必須堅持自己定義臺灣，我們內部可以衝突矛盾，可以歪纏爛打，但是，我們拒絕由外在的力量（或外力加內部少數人）重新定義臺灣。作為研究臺灣史的我，雅不願看到外於臺灣的史觀指導我們如何研究自己的歷史，我們的先民不是沒反抗過日本（武裝的、非武裝的），但是日本的殖民統治得由這塊土地上的人透過嚴謹的知識方法予以了解、予以評價。或甘苦參半、或愛恨交加、或曖昧矛盾，我們可以論證、論辯，但不要告訴我，我得怎麼看。戰後六十多年的歷史，影響今日臺灣非常深遠，我們才剛開始理解，不要告訴我，我們的苦難，我們的被剝奪，是為了成就一個「偉大民族」的必要犧牲。
If we don't want to see those "probables" become real, we must then insist that we define what Taiwan is. Internally, we can disagree, we can challenge each other, we can fight the dirty fights. But we must resist the redefinition of Taiwan by any external force (or any external force plus internally fomented factions). Myself being a researcher of Taiwanese History, I refuse to see that a historical narrative outside of Taiwan dictates how we research our own history. It's not that our forebears had not resisted the Japanese (armed or not). But Japan's colonized rule in Taiwan can only be evaluated by the people living here, with rigorous methodologies and studies. The past could be bittersweet, love-hate, full of ambivalences and contradictions. We could argue and debate. But we will not allow anyone that dictates to us how we should see our history. More than sixty years of the post-war history has profound influences over today's Taiwan, and we are just at the beginning of understanding it. We must not let anyone dictate to us that all our sufferings, all our dispossessions, are merely necessary sacrifices to form a part of a "Great Chinese Nation."
臺灣尚待定義，但不要告訴我，她只能等待再度被外力重新定義。
Taiwan awaits defining. But I will not let anyone dictate to me that, Taiwan deserves no choice and should accept redefinition by a superimposed force.