Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
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This ostentatious pile in the centre of Taipei opened in 1980 on the fifth anniversary of dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s death. It’s a giant fake-Chinese temple-like structure housing a large bronze Chiang sculpture flanked by two guard soldiers with shiny helmets and white gloves and gaiters. It’s more bizarre than dark but worth a look as it’s one of the last remaining relics of the once omnipresent cult of personality surrounding the former dictator.
>Combinations with other dark destinations
More background info: for the wider historical context and the role of Chiang Kai-shek in it see the separate chapter History of Taiwan.
When in 1975, Taiwan’s God-like leader, and de facto dictator, passed away aged 87, his image in the form of statues, busts and portrait pictures could be seen everywhere. Many were life-size. But after his death, and the month-long period of national mourning, his successors (including his son Chiang Ching-kuo) must have called for something even grander. A competition was launched and the winning design for the Memorial Hall was that by architect Yang Cho-cheng. Construction began in late 1976, and the Hall opened officially on 5 April 1980, the fifth anniversary of Chiang’s death.
The centrepiece is the Bronze Statue Hall. This houses a 6.3m high statue of a sitting Chiang atop a 3.5m high plinth, making the whole tower almost 10m high. In the interior of the monument below the Bronze Statue Hall are various auditoriums and exhibitions.
The latter include one about Chiang Kai-shek’s life, with a recreation of his office. The initial cult of personality this exhibition exudes (including a life-like wax statue of the dictator sitting at his desk) has in more recent years been offset by changes to the exhibition itself and in particular by an additional exhibition called “Taiwan’s long walk to freedom of speech” about the democratizing movement that turned Taiwan away from dictatorship and into what it is today.
These changes/additions reflect the fact that the unabashed cult-of-personality and Chiang-worship of old no longer wash with modern Taiwan’s democratic leaders and the more enlightened liberal population of the present day.
In recent years the DPP government (see history) has made noises about further reducing Chiang’s presence throughout Taiwan, including the removal of the statues of Chiang still in public places. A large proportion of these have already been moved into a single location – see Chiang Kai-shek statue park. This collection is bound to grow with further statue removals across Taiwan.
The question remains whether the big bronze statue of the man at this location is also endangered. Suggestions to (re)move it are met with outcries not only from the KMT. The huge statue is also a major tourism attraction, so removing it could be an iconoclastic step too far. I would certainly not welcome it, no matter how controversial a figure Chiang Kai-shek doubtlessly was.
Note that this memorial hall is NOT Chiang’s mausoleum – apparently some people assume that. His body is still lying in state at his actual mausoleum in Cihu near Daxi next to the present Chiang-Kai-shek statue park and is no longer publicly accessible.
What there is to see: The whole complex includes a park and two large faux-Chinese structures housing the National Theatre and the National Concert Hall. At the western end is a large equally faux-Chinese-design main five-arched gate. The square between them and to the south-east is now called “Liberty Square” (originally Chiang Kai-shek Square) and leads to the main element: the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall itself.
It’s a squarish white-marble-clad fortress-tower-like structure with a blue-tiled fake-temple-like roof and two massive flights of marble steps leading up either side of a large marble sun symbol as featured in the Taiwanese national flag. The stairs lead to the main part of the interior (open to the elements on the north-west facade). This is the Bronze Statue Hall.
The bronze statue in question is a giant sitting Chiang wearing his trademark benign-dictator smile. The plinth beneath him has an inscription in Chinese on it that is allegedly part of his will (but I can’t confirm this). Two rolled-up Taiwanese flags flank the statue and in front of him is a red-carpeted cordoned-off area with a sign additionally admonishing visitors that this part is out of bounds. Also take a look up to admire the highly elaborate and ornate ceiling.
On either side of the carpeted area are two guards standing completely motionless on little wooden plinth, wearing ceremonial uniforms with shiny silver helmets and bayoneted rifles parked by their feet. They remain as still as statues – until it is time for the changing of the guard ceremony, that is. This takes place on the hour during opening times (see below). When I was there I did not wait for the changing of the guards here, as I had already seen the more elaborate equivalent ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine the day before.
Nor did I visit any of the exhibitions on the floors below the Bronze Statue Hall. I was pressed for time and actually slotted the Memorial Hall in en route between the National 228 Museum and the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park. I cannot therefore say anything about the exhibitions from first-hand experience, but from what I gathered from the official website, Taipei tourism websites and other online resources, there are apparently two main permanent exhibitions complemented by temporary ones.
The main original exhibition about Chiang Kai-shek, his life and role in Taiwan’s history includes a couple of his US-made limos and a recreation of his office, complete with a life-size and lifelike wax figure of Chiang sitting at his huge desk. In addition there are documents, personal belongings and paintings.
The other permanent exhibition is much newer and is about “Taiwan’s long walk to freedom of speech”, i.e. the path from dictatorship to the highly developed level of democracy the country enjoys today.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and surrounding park and other structures are a major visitor attraction in Taipei for mainstream and dark tourists alike. And it’s popular. Even on a rainy midweek day in December I found it well attended, by locals as well as tourists. It is said that if you want to see the changing of the guards you should arrive early to secure a good spot for viewing the ceremony.
Location: in Taipei’s southern central district of Zhongzhen, between Section 1, Xinyi Rd. to the north and Aiguo East Rd. to the south. The main entrance gate (“Liberty Square Arch”) is on Zhongzhan South Rd., but you can also access the complex from the north and south. It’s about a mile (1.5 km) south-east of Taipei Main Station.
Google Maps locator: [25.0347, 121.5219]
Access and costs: Fairly easy to get to; free.
Details: The place has its own MRT metro station “Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall” on the Red and Green Lines. This lies one block to the south of the complex, just a short walk away. Various bus lines also have stops around the park’s perimeter.
Opening times:
The Memorial Hall is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily (except for Chinese New Year’s Eve and Day, 228 Memorial Day and some maintenance days).
The Memorial Park is open year round from 5 a.m. to midnight.
Admission free.
Time required: For a good look around the open-air parts and a visit to the Bronze Statue Hall about half an hour should suffice, more if you want to watch the changing of the guards (be there 15 mins before it starts to secure a good spot for watching the ceremony). If you also want to see the exhibitions you may have to factor in another hour and a half or so.
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see under Taipei.
I combined a brief visit to the Memorial Hall with the National 228 Museum, which is just three blocks west from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station down Nanhai Rd. The 228 Peace Memorial Park with the 2-28 Memorial Museum is also a short, walkable distance away to the north-west.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Taipei.
Much of the park is a non-dark attraction anyway, especially the Japanese-garden-like parts with ponds full of koi carp, but also the arches and theatre and concert hall buildings.
