August 16 Opening of the Su Beng Public Academy

Sunday, August 16th, 9:30 am-12:00 noon is the opening of the Su Beng Public Academy exhibit, at the Taipei, North Gate post office. The exhibit will run until September 2nd, and then it will re-run from September 12-30th.

Here's the Chinese language description of the event, followed by my English translation:

愈來愈多不同世代的台灣青年來到史明身邊學習，
年輕的「史明們」，發願把史明「覺醒」與「努力」
的過程，還有史明用他的人生指引出來的道路，
用數百萬字著述闡明的那些心願與種種方法，透過
「手稿展覽、名家對談、短期講座、學院對談」，
傳播出去給更多台灣人參考，促使
「讓台灣成為一個公平、正義獨立新國家」
的目標更早到來。
「獨立台灣會·史明大眾學舍」於焉誕生，
第一個講堂、第一場展覽，即將在百年歷史
的「台北北門郵局」一樓揭幕，
邀請您於2015年8月16日起，
蒞臨現場親眼觀覽史明的手稿，感受諸多藝術家
與這位台獨史家的閃亮交會，
並參與規劃史明大眾學舍的課程藍圖。

敬邀請各位踴躍參加並分享活動

More and more young generations of Taiwanese are coming to learn from Su Beng.

They are like "young Su Bengs."

And through this exhibition, they are committed to passing along Su Beng's thoughts and philosophies, which have been shaped by his own awakening about Taiwanese identity and by all the years of hard work that he's spent on his lifelong path working for what he believes in. 

Su Beng has written millions of words about his hopes and on tactics for revolution- these thoughts and words are represented by his handwritten documents and video footage of his conversations with prominent people, and his seminars/lectures/talks with students at various education institutions. The intention behind sharing all of this with the people of Taiwan is to hasten the creation of a fair, just, independent, new country, Taiwan.

The Taiwan Independence Association is proud to announce the opening of the Su Beng Public Academy in Taipei on August 16th. Su Beng will be speaking at the event, and there will be art on display. All are invited to attend.

June and July Updates About Su Beng

Here are some highlights of what Su Beng has been up to in June and July. As usual he has had several gatherings in his home- some were social visits,  others were classes with groups of young people and there were also people who had come to interview Su Beng. And there were also several outings with Su Beng's Taiwan Independence Action Motorcade- not all of these photos are being shared in this post.

At the beginning of June Su Beng met with Nicolas Chiou, who is working on illustrations for the revised cartoon version of TAIWAN'S 400 YEARS OF HISTORY.

On June 6th Su Beng posted this drawing of him with his assistant Bin Hong (敏紅）on Instagram and Facebook. I think that the artist did a really wonderful job of capturing the essence of Su Beng and Bing Hong. Bin Hong is very often seen at Su Beng's side like this. What a touching illustration!

July 13: Su Beng took to the streets in support of DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (菜英文).

June 18: Su Beng was interviewed by a Spanish journalist.

June 26: There was a screening of the documentary film, Su Beng: The Revolutionist in Chiayi.

This photo, which was shared on Su Beng's Facebook page really captures a typical scene of Su Beng with pages and pages of handwritten notes that he's made on very recognizable gridded paper.

Photo courtesy of: Hsiengo Huang

June 27: Su Beng changed his Facebook profile photo to show support for gay pride.

July 5: Su Beng spoke at a Free Taiwan Party meeting. The Free Taiwan Party is Taiwan's newest political party. To learn more about the party read this Taipei Times article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/04/18/2003616215

Here's another photo from Su Beng's Facebook page below that captures a note handwritten by Su Beng which reads: Young people have to have dreams.

In the photo below (which is from Su Beng's Facebook page(, Su Beng is sitting on the platform of the Taiwan High Speed Rail, with a portrait of him by 林趙宗宋先生. Su Beng can often be seen traveling around Taiwan by High Speed Rail for his various speaking engagements.

July 26: The documentary, Su Beng: The Revolutionist was screened at the Ketagalan Institute.

Su Beng with Lihkuei Chen, the director of the film Su Beng: The Revolutionist

There's also been a bit of good news that was shared at the end of July. Su Beng has been considering selling his noodle shop in Ikebukuro, Japan but he was able to rent it to someone, so the noodle shop is not being sold for now. This noodle shop is where he wrote his seminal book TAIWAN'S 400 YEARS OF HISTORY, and trained people for his underground network. And in the noodle shop's heyday Su Beng funneled all of the profits he earned from it into his underground network of activists who were fighting for the independence of Taiwan. Read more about Su Beng's noodle shop by clicking HERE.

April and May Updates About Su Beng

For quite some time Su Beng has wanted to erect a monument to commemorate Cheng Ping ( 鄭評), who was executed for his involvement in an attempt to assassinate Chiang Ching-Kuo in 1974. Chiang, the son of Chiang Kai-Shek, was the Premier of Taiwan at the time.  Cheng was a member of Su Beng's underground Revolutionary Army of Taiwan Independence.

On April 11, Su Beng and a busload of friends and supporters went to the Holy Mountain in central Taiwan for an unveiling of the monument and memorial for Cheng Ping.

Photo courtesy of: 林幸蓉 

Here are some photos of opening ceremonies prior to the unveiling of the monument.

Artwork with the image of Cheng Ping ( 鄭評) on it. 

Table with worship offerings.

Su Beng getting ready to place a white lily at the monument.

Photo courtesy of: 林幸蓉 

In Taiwan white lilies are a symbol to commemorate victims of the White Terror Era an the 228 incident/massacre.

Su Beng is now on INSTAGRAM!

It was also sometime in April I believe, that I noticed Su Beng started being on Instagram! Now how many 96 year olds will you'll find on Instagram? You can find him there @su_beng1918

Su Beng has always been quite open to technology and social media, but much of the credit and thanks for managing all of his social media must go to his assistant Bin Hong.

A photo of Bin Hong with Su Beng, March 30, 2014.

In late April,  黃謙賢, a photographer, presented Su Beng with a life-sized photograph that he had taken of Su Beng in 2012.

On May 9th, The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯), a documentary film about the "Taiwan Independence Association Incident" premiered. The incident, which happened in 1990, involved four people who were accused of being a part of Su Beng's underground Taiwan Independence Association-- NTHU student Liao Wei-chen (廖偉程), aboriginal rights activist Masao Nikar, political activist Wang Hsiu-hui (王秀惠) and historian Chen Cheng-jen (陳正然). The four were arrested and charged with sedition.  

Su Beng and Liao Chein-hua (廖建華) director of The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯)

The arrests led to student strikes, demonstrations and occupation of the Taipei Railway Station in protest of the government's clamp down on freedom of expression. This put pressure on the legislature to abolish The Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例) and on May 17, 1990 it was indeed abolished. Under the Punishment of Rebellion Act, the four arrested in conjunction with the "Taiwan Independence  Association Incident" would have been subject to the death penalty if found guilty. 

Here's the trailer for The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯):

24 years later, on May 17, there was a public screening of The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯) in the Taipei Rail Station. To learn more about The Last Insurrection read this Taipei Times article about the film.

DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen and Su Beng

Photo courtesy of: Kyoto Sanata

On May 19th Su Beng spoke at National Chung Cheng University.

A plaque at the National Chung Cheng University commemorating the Sunflower Movement which began March 18, 2014.

A closer look at the plaque commemorating the Sunflower Movement which began March 18, 2014. 

On May 19th, Su Beng also attended the annual memorial service for Chan I-Hua (詹益樺).

On May 24th Su Beng commemorated the death of dancer Tsai Jui-yueh at the Taiepi City Tsai Jui-Yueh Dance Foundation. Tsai served time as a political prisoner on Green Island and has been called "the mother of Taiwanese modern dance."

Since the end of May there have been a series of protests by high school students in Taiwan over changes made to new high school textbooks to be introduced in August. According to this Taipei Times article, at least 16 schools nationwide have participated in this action. The changes to the textbooks include the editing of Taiwan's history and the deletion of references to the White Terror era, the 228 incident and activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕). Having been made aware of these changes, high school students are now protesting by saying that they don't want to be brainwashed.

There was a time, not that long ago that Taiwan history actually HAD to be added into high school textbooks. Grassroots movements in the 1980's led to some of the first curriculum reforms in the mid-1990's.  

Critics have charged that the new history textbooks reflect a China-centric point of view.The current controversy over high school textbooks started back in early 2014 when the Ministry of Education first approved these changes, academics, activists, students, civic organizations protested the hasty review process and unqualified task force. To learn more about the high school text book controversy read this in depth article written by Ketty Chen.  

Su Beng has come out in support of the students' actions. On May 30th he was invited to speak at the Hui Deng middle school in Illan. He told the students that they are the "masters" of Taiwan and that the future of Taiwan is in their hands. He also urged them to focus on their studies and education now so that they don't have any regrets about it later in life. And as a parting piece of advice, he said what while students should study hard, they should also play hard. 

Su Beng and students from Hui Deng middle school.

He was also honored by the school with a commemorative bronze plaque.

On May 31, Su Beng showed up at the Chungli (中壢) train station in support of students protesting about the textbook revision controversy.

Visiting with Su Beng in Taipei (April 2015)

My trip to Taiwan earlier this month was very short. I was only able to spend one week in Taipei, which is a quite a contrast from my visit last year. 

But I'm glad that I was able to make it for the last screening of Su Beng, The Revolutionist and to spend some more time with Su Beng. 

Su Beng still has many frequent visitors. While I was there he had this group of young people over for lunch.

Lunch was curry chicken and boy was it every yummy! Special thanks to Bin Hong who did most of the preparation for this delicious dish.

I had a chance to sit down and interview him with some translation assistance from my friend Michelle.

I also talked to him about the revised English version of Taiwan's 400 Year History, and the possibility of publishing the revised English version in print. I'm already working on the ebook version. 

Plans for the DVD version of the documentary film, Su Beng, the Revolutionist are underway. Japanese and English subtitles being worked on. Lihkuei Chen, the director of the film Su Beng, The Revolutionist and the crew who will be working on the English subtitles also paid Su Beng a visit.

Su Beng was also interviewed by German journalist Klaus Bardenhagen (of Taiwan Reporter), with the translation assistance of Gunter Whittome. Klaus is working on a book about independence movements worldwide and he's working on a chapter about Taiwan. Klaus and I have actually met virtually- through my Making History crowdfunding campaign. What a pleasant surprise it was for us to meet that day because I didn't know beforehand that it was Klaus who was coming to interview Su Beng that day!

After the interview we had pizza and beer for lunch.

Film director Colin Chou, translator Gunter Whittome and Klaus Bardenhagen (of Taiwan Reporter).

And then before I knew it, it was time for me to leave Taipei and head back to New York. It's always hard to leave, but this time seemed especially difficult. It makes me feel like I'm going to have to come back again on a regular basis. 

Last Screening of Su Beng, The Revolutionist in Taipei

The day that I arrived in Taipei (March 25th), I received an email from Andy saying that he and his wife Hanji were in Taipei and wondering how they could get a copy of the Chinese language version of Su Beng's book, Taiwan's 400 Year History. Andy had contacted me about this last year, but since he lives in the U.S. and Su Beng's book was out of print and under revision at the time, I couldn't get a copy over to him.

When I received his email, I knew that I had to seize the opportunity to get the book over to him and to meet in person. What a coincidence it was that we all happened to be in Taipei at the same time! Andy and I have never met and have only corresponded via email. The following day (March 26th), I had planned to attend the last screening of the documentary, Su Beng, The Revolutionist (史明紀錄片「革命進行式]) in Taipei with Bin Hong, Su Beng's assistant. So I invited Andy and his wife along to the screening, and I asked Bin Hong to bring copies of the Chinese language and English version of Su Beng's Taiwan's 400 Year History to the screening for them. 

Bin Hong, Felicia Lin, Hanji and Andy after the last screening of Su Beng, The Revolutionist in Taipei (March 26, 2015)

So it's thanks to Bin Hong, and a very happy coincidence that I was finally able to deliver both the Chinese language and English language versions of Su Beng's book, Taiwan's 400 Years of History to Hanji and Andy.

It was also quite a thrill to see the footage that I shot of Su Beng inside of the occupied Legislative Yuan appear during the end credits of the movie, and to see my name scrolling up an actual movie theater screen.

What an auspicious way to start things off! I can't wait to see what else is lies ahead during my time in Taiwan this time around.

3/20: Su Beng interviewed on Formosa TV

On March 20th Su Beng was interviewed on Formosa TV, along with Lihkuei Chen, the director of the film Su Beng, The Revolutionist (史明紀錄片「革命進行式]) , one of the co-authors of The Oral History of Su Beng (史明口述史).

Stay tuned: I will be adding an English synopsis of what was said during the interview segment.

Last film screening of the documentary Su Beng, The Revolutionist

Screenings of "Su Su Beng, the Revolutionist" (史明紀錄片「革命進行式]) in Taiwan will be ending on March 26th.

What timing since I'll be heading to Taiwan tomorrow, just in time to catch one of the last screenings of the documentary in Taipei on the 26th!

Below is a list of the screening times in Taipei and Taichung.

Taipei (台北信義威秀)

VIEWSHOW Cinemas: No. 20, Songshou Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110

3/20 週五12：00
3/21 週六12：00
3/22 週日12：00
3/23 週一12：55
3/24 週二12：55
3/25 週三12：55
3/26 週四12：55

Taichung (台中老虎城威秀)

VIESHOW Cinemas: 120-1 Henan Road, Section 3, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 407

3/20 週五13：10
3/21 週六13：10
3/22 週日13：10
3/23 週一11：45
3/24 週二11：45
3/25 週三11：45
3/26 週四11：45

Update on the Revisions of the English version of Taiwan's 400 Year History

I'm just about done with most of the major revisions to Su Beng's English version of TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY. In doing the revisions, I have tried not to change the perspective on Taiwan's history that Su Beng offers in the book. My focus has been on copyediting the text, updating certain key facts like the current population of Taiwan, dealing with inconsistencies in the pinyin and romanization of Chinese and Taiwanese terms used (which has meant including the Chinese characters for some of the names of people and places so that there is no ambiguity or confusion), and giving an explanation of certain Taiwanese or Chinese colloquial terms mentioned in the text. For some of the sections of the book that needed more clarification, I've referred to the Chinese language version of Su Beng's book THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE'S 400 YEARS OF HISTORY (台灣人四百年史）and with the translation assistance of my parents, and I've cited additional information from the Chinese language version in TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY.

Since the book was published in 1986, there have certainly been a number of developments, which would require the addition of several chapters to the book. Unfortunately that would require work that is outside of the scope of this revision. However, at the end of the book there is a timeline of major events in the history of Taiwan, which ends in 1986 and for this revision I've decided to work on extending that timeline until early 2015.

At this time I am also dealing with some formatting and layout issues for the book that have come up as a result of this revision. 

Next will be the conversion of the book into an ebook format. 

This revision will be far from perfect, but hopefully it can be the first of a series of periodic revisions of the book in the future. 

It is also my hope that one day there will be a more complete translation of the Chinese language version Su Beng's book which is 2000 plus pages long. At 150 plus pages, the current English language book, TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY is only a fraction of length of the more comprehensive Chinese language version.

Update #3 RE: Making History Documentary About Su Beng

I've FINALLY finished editing a short video clip highlighting some of the key footage that I've shot of Su Beng over the years. I've sat through a few editing sessions with Robin and am slowly learning the ropes of how to do video editing. But I think that for now, I will leave video editing to the experts. 

Video editing requires a good sense of timing, and knowing how to maintain the visual interest of viewers. And when you have that vision, you will know where to decisively cut a scene. That's where Robin comes in. Robin shot and edited my crowdfunding pitch video and several of my crowdfunding update videos. Fortunately, he will be working with me to complete the documentary about Su Beng, because I need all the help I can get in the video editing department!

This latest video that Robin and I collaborated on should give you an idea of what's going to be appearing in the short documentary that I'm working on about Su Beng.

The footage in this video shows many of the significant moments that I've captured of and experienced with Su Beng. There were many "firsts," such as the first time I met Su Beng in person- when he came to Kaohsiung to speak in February of 2004, the first time I sat down to interview Su Beng at his home in New Taipei in August of 2004, and my first visit to Su Beng's noodle shop in Ikebukuro, Japan in August of 2005. There's also some very festive footage of the 10 year anniversary of Su Beng's Taiwan Independence Action motorcade in April of 2005. And footage shot by Ho Chie Tsai of Su Beng's talk at the Taiwan Center in Rosemeade, CA in August 2011; it was his first visit to the U.S. in nearly 20 years. Special thanks to HoChie Tsai and TaiwaneseAmerican.org for the use of this footage. Finally, there's some footage of the inside and outside of the occupied Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan- that I shot during the Sunflower Movement in March and April of 2014.

The Official Trailer for: Su Beng, the Revolutionist was released on YouTube today

Thanks to the generosity of contributors to the MAKING HISTORY crowdfunding campaign I was able to make a trip to Taiwan early last year, to continue research and to work on my project to document the life of Su Beng. And even more incredibly, while I was there, I witnessed and experienced the historic Sunflower Movement and occupation of the Legislative Yuan. 

I was also extremely fortunate to be with Su Beng the first time he entered the chambers of occupied Legislative Yuan, and of course I was ready and armed with my video camera in hand.

But how did some of my footage end up in the documentary film, "Su Beng, the Revolutionist?"

Before my crowdfunding campaign even got fully funded, my friend Chia-Chun had introduced me to Lihkuei Chen, who I knew as the director of the film Dear Taiwan (好國好民). At the time Lihkuei was working on a documentary film about Su Beng. Lihkuei is of course the director of "Su Beng, the Revolutionist."

Lihkuei and I met several times when I was in Taiwan last year. We chatted and compared notes on the shared subject matter of our work- Su Beng. And when I learned that Lihkuei had gone to Tokyo to interview the love of Su Beng's life, a Japanese woman who he has referred to as "Hiraga," I asked her about it. Lihkuei kindly told me about the interview and her personal impressions about Hiraga. I had wanted to meet Hiraga years ago, but there were a number of obstacles since she primarily speaks Japanese and resides in Tokyo. I knew that although Su Beng and Hiraga separated in the late 1960s, they have remained in touch. Until recently, Su Beng would travel to Tokyo annually to look in on his Tokyo noodle shop, which he has kept running since it opened in the mid-1950s. 

I asked Lihkuei if she would share the interview with Hiraga with me, and she agreed. In fact, Lihkuei told me that probably only a very small portion of the interview with Hiraga would make it into the film. While my project certainly has a video documentary portion, it has always primarily been about the biography of Su Beng. Film and the written word are two very different mediums, which on the surface may require similar research. But in many ways, a written work can provide a greater depth of detail than film. This was a really exciting development for me- to be able to get Hiraga's perspective on Su Beng and the experiences that they've shared together. I'm certain that it will add another dimension to the telling of Su Beng's life story. 

Initially, when I started this project to document the life of Su Beng, I set out simply to audio and video record my interviews with Su Beng, but then that extended to recording moments of Su Beng's everyday life. Now, whenever I'm with Su Beng, I usually have my video camera on hand. 

Which brings us back to March 27, 2014, the day I found myself in the chambers of occupied Legislative Yuan with Su Beng and a video camera capturing it all. What a monumental moment it was, and when Lihkuei asked if she could use the footage that I had shot, I was more than happy to oblige and to be able to contribute something to her film. Now some of that footage can be seen in the trailer for "Su Beng, the Revolutionist" that was released on YouTube today.

My footage appears at the 2:16-2:50 mark of the trailer. You'll see scenes of Su Beng inside of the occupied Legislative Yuan, speaking to Sunflower Movement student leader Lin Fei-Fan and then addressing all of the activists camped in the Legislative Yuan chambers. The footage looks a lot better than I remember! It's amazing what some great video editing can produce. I can't wait to see the entire film.