CHANG KAI-SHEK NATIONAL MEMORIAL

A place of pilgrimage for many Taiwanese who came to pay homage to the man who ruled the nationalist island for nearly thirty years, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial was opened to the public on April 5, 1980, five years after the death of the president. This gigantic white marble building, 76 meters high, overlooks a beautiful garden of 25 hectares.

In the main hall, like the national memorial of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a 25-ton bronze statue of the late president stands in front of which the soldiers of the National Guard stand up every hour. The main entrance (30 m wide and 80 m long), built in Ming architectural style, faces the Kulun Mountains in mainland China, a sign that Chiang always hoped to return to his native land.

The originality of this place lies in the octagonal design of the roof, borrowed from the Forbidden City in Beijing, with each side representing a moral principle (fidelity, piety, altruism, trust, love, bravery, harmony and peace) and the motifs on top symbolizing people. The symbolism is obvious; it must be seen as the union of man and heaven. Behind the gate, a vast 200-meter-long paved square stretches up to the memorial with the National Theater and the National Concert Hall on either side. As part of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial complex, these two Chinese palaces were added to the complex in 1987. Hundreds of performances are held in these halls, which have become leading cultural centers.

Inside the memorial is a permanent exhibition of photos, artifacts and correspondence on Chiang Kai-shek's life. If the life of this man with an exceptional destiny deserves to be studied, one should not forget that the "generalissimo" practiced, as a good dictator, a true cult of personality. The elements shown in this small museum should therefore be viewed with a certain distance. The whole thing often looks like pure and simple propaganda. The adjoining gardens are very pleasant and planted in the respect of calligraphy, so much so that the newlyweds come to have their picture taken there a few days before the ceremony. Another curiosity: a small path of pointed stones on which people walk barefoot to rebalance their energies. It hurts a lot at the beginning, but then you get used to it, and finally you ask for more.