National 2-28 Museum
(if you can read Chinese: 
) - 
This is the “other” 2-28 museum in Taipei (the original earlier one is this) commemorating the dark events of 28 February 1947, a mass uprising by the Taiwanese people against their Nationalist KMT government that was brutally crushed, with tens of thousands killed. This marked the beginning of what became known as the “White Terror” (see Jing-Mei and Green Island) that lasted for decades under the Chiang Kai-shek dictatorship. This museum is really only for die-hard history buffs, especially those that can read Chinese, as it provides only very limited labelling and texts in English.
>Combinations with other dark destinations
More background info: for general background see the separate chapter History of Taiwan and more specifically the chapter for the 2-28 Memorial Museum.
The building that houses today’s museum was constructed in 1931, i.e. during the Japanese colonial era of Taiwan. It served as a Taiwan Education Association Building as well as providing a venue for art exhibitions such as the Taiwan Art Fair. It was designated a historical site in 1993.
The idea for the museum was hatched in 2006 and the following year it received its current name, though it took until 2010 or 2011 (sources vary) for the current permanent museum exhibition to open to the public.
What there is to see: The museum building is worth a good look from the outside, as it is one of only a few historical ones left in modern Taipei. It’s built in typical 1930s Japanese colonial style.
Inside you’re greeted by a grand staircase with similarly grand lighting fixtures. To the left of the bottom of the stairs is a strange installation that looks a bit like a circular cage with strips of paper attached to its bars. These might be notes left by visitors, going by the paper strips and pen provided, but as it was all in Chinese I cannot be sure.
On the ground floor is just a small exhibition room that seems to cover the history of the building itself and that of the development of the museum at this site. But again everything is in Chinese only, so remained in accessible to me or any other non-Chinese speaker.
The main exhibition is upstairs in the centre of the building (most of which serves other purposes, by the way). There is some English here, but only translations of the main introductory panels, the rest only has English labels, while all the explanatory text is, again, in Chinese only.
There’s an intro section about the background to the 2-28 incident, with text and video screens covering the end of Japanese colonial rule with Japan’s defeat in WWII and the takeover by the mainland Chinese KMT (see history). Initially this was welcomed by the Taiwanese, but it soon became clear that the new rulers were even worse in terms of how the Taiwanese were treated (and excluded from politics) and how the island’s resources were “plundered” by the corrupt new authorities.
One particular aspect outlined in the museum is the new rulers’ language regulations, which stipulated Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the administration and the media. Suddenly the Taiwanese people who had used Japanese as their everyday language for 50 years were made de facto illiterate by decree from above and could no longer even read the newspapers.
The main part of the exhibition naturally focuses on the protests that started on 28 February 1947, triggered by the police having killed a contraband-cigarette seller the day before. These protests lasted well into March but were brutally crushed and between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed and many more arrested. The long dark period of martial law and the “White Terror” had begun (see Jing-Mei).
The exhibition features lots of documents, all in Chinese, and some explanatory texts (also almost entirely in Chinese) as well as plenty of period photos, some of them quite gruesome.
Artefacts on display include radios and microphones (radio played a big role in the protests – see 2-28 Memorial Museum), military and police equipments (helmets, weapons, binoculars, etc.), medical gear, items of clothing and so on. In one corner stands a safe with its door open and out of it a heap of paper money seems to flow – this is symbolic of the money embezzled by the corrupt authorities as decried by the protesters.
A core aspect of the museum are the many portrait photos of the victims and a whole bookcase full of countless volumes that form the victims’ register.
The most remarkable display, I found, is the replica of part of a shack with a secluded hideout behind a fake brick wall. Inside this was just one narrow wooden plank to serve as a bed, a bucket (as a toilet) and a single kerosene lamp. It was in such a simple hideout that one Shih Ju-chen spent 17 or 18 years in (again, sources vary). He was on the police’s most wanted list as a member of a left-wing book club and alleged radical. He had already been arrested once for subversion under the previous Japanese colonial rule, and in the 2-28 protests he was injured by gunshots. After that experience he chose to go into hiding in 1954, while other fellow book-club members were being rounded up, as the “White Terror” really took hold. Over all those years in hiding, Shih’s younger brother supplied him with food and water, namely through a small hole in the wall with loose bricks that could be taken out and then replaced. Shih eventually died of jaundice in 1970 or 1971 (again, sources vary as to the exact year).
In the corridors outside the exhibition space proper, large oil paintings on the walls depict various atrocities and executions related to the topic of the exhibition.
When I was there in December 2023, a side room housed an additional exhibition, which I understood to be only temporary. This was entitled “Literary Education of Modernist Youth” and was about the influence of the U.S. Information Service. During the 1950s and 60s in particular, this agency helped shape a certain Americanization in Taiwan (while the USA also provided military aid to the country). Amongst the exhibits are magazine covers with the images of world-famous people ranging from US president John F. Kennedy to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who was the first man in space. This exhibition will meanwhile have been replaced with something else.
All in all, I’d say that for most dark tourists this museum is not exactly a must-see attraction, but for those keen to dig deeper into modern Taiwan’s dark history it is certainly worth a look.
Location: in south central Taipei on the corner of Nanhai Road and Quanzhou Street, a good half mile (900m) west of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and a little further (1 km) south of the 2-28 Memorial Museum and Peace Park.
Google Maps locator: [25.0316, 121.5139]
Access and costs: slightly off the city centre but not hard to get to; free.
Details: From e.g. the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall or the 2-28 Memorial Museum and Peace Park it’s walkable, but there’s also public transport: the nearest metro station is Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall on the Green and Red Lines. Several bus lines have stops just round the corner from the museum, e.g. line 262 from Taipei Main Station (get out at Zhongzheng 2nd Police District stop) or lines 1, 204, 630 (get out at at the Jianguo High School stop).
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Mondays (except when 28 February falls on a Monday)
Admission is free.
Time required: If, like me, you cannot read Chinese you’ll probably be out again after as little as half an hour too, but if you do know Chinese you could spend perhaps an hour longer in the exhibition.
Combinations with other dark destinations: Most obviously there is the original first museum about the same dark chapter in history, the 2-28 Memorial Museum located to the north. Within easy walking distance, but thematically quite a contrast, is also the pompous Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The topic of the “White Terror” following the 2-28 events is explored in depth at the Jing-Mei Museum in the south of Taipei.
For more see also under Taipei in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Taipei.
