It's no secret that sometimes I get very frustrated with Taiwan. Taiwan has more than it's fair share of problems, but the culture here has somehow become one where people complain but they don't actually do anything about it. They feel like they have no power.
As much as I despise America, I can't help but admire the recent stories of people like Montravias King, the actions of people helping others to vote and be prepared for the voter ID laws, and the sit in at the governor's office in Florida which got the discussion of "stand your ground" reopened. These stories of fight and success really make me that much more sure that Taiwan could really benefit from these actions.
The truly frustrating thing though is not that long many Taiwanese did this exact thing. They challenged the government, they had no violent protests and eventually the Taiwanese people had freedom of speech, religion, and other things that we take for granted. And while this all happened no less than twenty years ago, people seem to have forgotten all about it and now feel that they are powerless, and have no motivation to do anything about it.
These feelings bubbled up to the surface again when I saw this sign for Liberty Lane. It's the new name for a small lane that Deng Nan-jung used to live on. He was the founder of the Freedom Era Weekly, which was a newspaper which practiced getting the true information out and not the propaganda of the government. There was no free speech at the time and you couldn't critize the government so his newspaper was highly illegal. Thus he was often harassed and beaten by the government.
As the title suggests, he ended his life by setting himself on fire. The police were coming to get him, so he barricaded himself inside his office, and before they could come in, he had set himself on fire. Later on a march to memorialize him, the government attacked the marchers, and another gentleman set himself on fire and then ran into the barbed wire in front of the police.
On the actual street is another sign, and in his former apartment is a small museum for him, which is new, so I haven't been there yet. I have high hopes for it, as I hope it will inspire some people to try and make some change when they see an injustice.
