ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park in New Taipei City. The research underscores the park’s history as well as its commemoration and exhibition of the human suffering produced by four decades (1945–1987) of Nationalist single-party dictatorship on Taiwan. The Jing-Mei facilities had been the notorious military court and detention centre for the Taiwan Garrison Command and the Ministry of National Defence. Tens of thousands of political prisoners were tortured, executed and incarcerated here. In the late 2000s, Taiwan’s democratized state turned the empty courthouse and detention complex into a major pedagogic site for teaching the younger generation about the island’s hard-won freedom and the horrors of living under an authoritarian system. Despite the success of the park, the legacy of White Terror and transitional justice in Taiwan remains a contested terrain fraught with disputes and conflicting memories. These conflicting views are influenced by both divisive domestic politics and an uneasy relationship with China. The planned chapter explores these complexities and places Taiwan’s case in a comparative framework with other East Asian societies.
