Samia Ferhat, Sandrine Marchand (ed.), Taïwan - Ile de memoires (Taiwan: Island of memories)

Transitional Justice and Collective Memory in Taiwan: How Taiwanese Society is Coming to Terms with Its Authoritarian Past

ABSTRACT: Recognition of persecution during an authoritarian era is an issue that has arisen in every society that has undergone a successful democratic transition in the second half of the twentieth century. The manner in which each country has dealt with the question in many ways reflects the circumstances of its democratisation, and its past. In Taiwan, the development of transitional justice has mainly focused on the recognition of the victims of two distinct historic experiences. This article aims to analyse the dynamic that has led to the recognition of the victims of the party-state that governed Taiwan from 1945 to 1992. KEYWORDS: transitional justice, Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek, collective memory, White Terror, 228 Incident.