This is a very humdrum picture which hides what is actually inside this apartment. There is a much better visual that I could have taken a picture of, but when you read today's post, you will see why I do not have that picture.
You can't tell it now. But a few decades ago this apartment had flames shooting out of it because a Taiwanese gentleman set himself on fire to avoid being arrested by the government. If you recall I talked about this back on November 9th. I advise going back to read that post if you haven't as it will give some back story that I won't go into here.
Well I finally made it over there to go to see the museum about his life. It was quite an interesting experience. The first thing I did there was watch a 20 minute documentary about his life. While I knew a lot of the story already, it did have some things I didn't know. It also mentioned that another gentleman just set himself on fire a few years ago in protest of the KMT assuming control of the presidency again. I did like part of it's message (as it's the message i'm always preaching), that people did so much to end the martial law but that people today just think the fight is over and through their inaction are letting things regress.
Unfortunately the video continues for a bit longer where it falls into propaganda saying that the KMT is evil and the DPP are angels fighting for what is right. If you have followed this blog at all you will remember that to be honest there is not much separating the DPP and KMT right now, and that many of those freedom fighters have left the DPP as they felt "the party is more concerned with keeping power than helping taiwan." I can say that in my personal interactions with politicians in both parties, some are bad and some are good, the party seems to have no reflection on the quality of the politician.
Anyway, after the video, the museum's curator showed me around. I was grateful for this as it answered two questions I had always had.
1. How was he able to continue to have the magazine for so long?
He filed ownership documents for 18 different people, so when one of theirs was taken away, he just shift it to one of the remaining people.
2. What was the reason that the government finally came to get him?
He had drafted a new constitution for Taiwan.
While I appreciated the info, it was hard to really talk with the curator as he is the youngest brother of the man who sent himself on fire. I must say that I really have no idea what the proper etiquette is when interacting with somebody whose brother burned himself alive. This is also the reason why I didn't take a picture of any of those parts. While it would have made for a striking visual, taking a picture of a burned office while his brother stands next to me, even if he had encouraged me to take a picture would have been extremely uncomfortable.
The uncomfortable factor was made a bit worse when you turn around and you see that they actually kept some of his office in tact from when it was burned. As well as items of clothing and pictures of his charred body. This is something I had debated with myself before even going to this museum that surely any museum out of respect would not have pictures. But once in the museum and seeing the video and other items it makes sense why they have this part. It fits the theme of the museum in that it's all an effort to shock people into action.
Is it working? Perhaps. The friend I went with admitted that she had never heard of this guy or the event. But she left with enough of an impression that she has been talking about it with friends and has told me when she finds somebody who surprisingly actually knows about it. On the other hand though she was thoroughly disgusted by the imagery to the point of dry heaving. If anything I think this detracted from her experience. And I feel if you want to inspire action, you don't lead with the self-immolation part, as not everybody can do that. Rather you should highlight more of his protesting, free speech magazine, and other actions, which anybody can emulate.
