Taiwan Docs

In 1990 the old National Assembly passed an ad hoc revised law that extended the term of the representatives who had been elected in 1986 to nine years. This fired up the wrath of the people, and the students led in the rebuke, in a student movement lasting three months. They organized a sit-in calling for four principles -- freedom, seperation, peace and order. It led to a confrontation with the government and the riot troops were placed on standby. They had four demands: disband the National Assembly; abolish  the Temporary Provisions During the Period of Communist Rebellion; hold a conference on national affairs; and provide a timetable for democratic reform. Coming from northen Taiwan and south, five thousand students gathered at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaza. There was solidarity between teachers and students. And the life force of the wild lily showed forth. During the protest, some of the public gave support and encouragement, taking it upon themselves to help the student movement with financial contributions. There were even those who came all the way from southern Taiwan. The atmosphere was led by entertaining impersonations and creative songs, expressing the romantic, revolutionary fervor of the students. Spurring each other on, they resolutely demanded that the government should act before they would quit their sit-in. In the latter period the government made some limited compromises, which led to chaos and failure to reach agreement among themselves. The public began to doubt the ability of the students to influence the government. The sit-in lasted for 150 hours, and, no matter what government finally decided, it is truly worth deeply investigating this student movement as progenerator of the thoughts of the people. Interviewed in the film are both students within the movement and others, with some of them only seen from behind or as shadows, as they feared the gathering of evidence to be used against them. After the film was edited and shown at that time, students in the movement criticized it for not taking their side, but the purpose of the film was to record the movement, not participate in it, as it hopes to move others in the public, not a smaller audience within the movement.

Source: Taiwan International Documentary Festival