News

2008.0410

Removed or Not, CKS Statue Still Hot

By Astrid Chiu Campus Reporter Graduate Institute of Performing Arts Associate Professor Jerry Hsia (夏學理) climbed up to the Chiang Kai-shek (CKS, 蔣介石) statue on the main campus this morning, put on a pair of fancy shades and a shopping bag in the statue’s hand as his students organized a promotion activity in front of the statue for their opera Hansel und Gretel, which will be shown at the auditorium on May 16 and May 17. Students took advantage of the statue and the hottest issue on the campus – whether the statue should be removed – to promote their debut opera.  They also took advantage of assonance of Chinese language. Tseng Jhin-yuan (曾志遠), an actor of the opera and a student from the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts, explained that the Chinese title for Hansel und Gretel is “candy house.”  The pronunciation of “candy” happened to be the same as “hall,” as CKS Memorial Hall was also a hot political issue because it was re-named as Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. At the statue, students established a huge promotion construction and decorated it as the CKS Memorial Hall.  Under the concept of assonance, students replaced the name “memorial hall” with “remember candy,” now that the Chinese title for the focus of the promotion – Hansel und Gretel – is "candy house.” Hsia explained that it was a combination of installation arts and promotion for the opera. "This statue is a political issue.  But we would like to tell everybody that there are more important things rather than green or blue,” Hsia said. A walk-by pedestrian who identified himself as Chen Lin (陳林) and claimed himself a veteran, a retired associate professor and a National Taiwan Normal University graduate, interrupted Hsia’s addressing. "What you have done is just making fun of CKS,” he yelled. Graduate Institute of Performing Arts Director Susan Lin (林淑真) immediately tried to explain the concept of the promotion activity to Chen. "We are more than happy to tell you what it is all about since it seems to me that you have no idea of it at all, yes?” Lin said. Instead of responding to Lin, Chen immediately left without any further comments.