Taiwan Docs

The stains of Bach's unaccompanied cello and the voice of narrator Cheng Wen-tang take us back to 1989, stirring up many memories of Cheng Nan-jung, and the Freedom Era Weekly Magazine office where he burned himself to death. Cheng was born in 1947, the year of the February 28 incident. Son of a Fujianese father and Keelung mother, he was always saying," I am the son of a mainlander, while I advocate Taiwan independence." In March 1984, he founded Freedom Era Weekly Magazine, which called for "struggle for one hundred percent freedom of speech. " In 1986 he was the first to join the Taiwan Democratic Party, which had been established in the United States, and not long after initiated  the May 19 Green Action to protest against 39 years of martial law. For that he was arrested and thrown into prison. He was released after martial law was lifted, and in 1987, shortly before the 40th anniversary of the February 28 Incident, started the  February 28 Peace Promotion Association. In 1988, together with Association of Taiwan Political Prisoners, he started the Movement for New Nation, and toured Taiwan for forty days in a show of force. After that he went to the United States and Japan, where he became acquainted with activists in the Taiwan independence movement. Upon returning to Taiwan, he published Kyo Sekai's "Republic of Taiwan Draft Constitution" in issue 254 of the magazine, which brought a warrant for his arrest from the attorney general. Beginning on the 27th, he kept himself locked up in the magazine office, refusing to appear in court, and declaring that "the Kuomintang will only be able to capture my body, but will not be able to capture my person!" At 9:05 AM on April 7, Chen Nan-jung's charred body declared his resolve to contribute himself to this land, and his love for the people. On May 19, as Cheng's funeral procession was blocked by the barbed-wire barricades at the park in front of the Presidential Building, a volunteer in the people's movement, Chan Yi-hua, burned himself to death on the spot. Both in life and death, the activist thinker Cheng Nan-jung opened up many new directions for Taiwan on the road to freedom. Through this film we come to understand why it is that Cheng's death has had such a tremendous and lasting influence on Taiwan society. 

source: Taiwan International Documentary Festival