President Ma Ying-jeou on Sunday attended the opening of an exhibit of paintings by Taiwanese intellectual Chiang Wei-shui at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial. In a speech, Ma lauded Chiang as the father of the New Culture Movement in Taiwan, and the “Taiwanese Sun Yat-sen”.
President Ma said that this year is significant because it is not only the 70th anniversary of the victory against Japan, it’s also the 120th anniversary of the end of Qing Dynasty rule in Taiwan.
The president spoke about many of Chiang’s achievement’s during his lifetime. He said that Chiang was not only a pioneer revolutionary who used peaceful means in the campaign against the Japanese, he was also a promoter of civic movements, and educational and cultural reforms.
Chiang Wei-shui was born during Qing Dynasty rule in 1891. Before his death of typhoid at the age of 40, Chiang founded the Taiwanese Cultural Association and the Taiwanese People’s Party. He was imprisoned more than ten times for opposition to the Japanese colonial government.
The current exhibition of Chiang Wei-shui’s oil paintings is under way at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial in Taipei.