Wild Lily Movement
The Wild Lily Movement ( Chinese 野百合 學運 , Pinyin Yě Bǎihé xué yùn , English Wild Lily movement ) was a massive student protest in Taipei , Republic of China (Taiwan) that lasted 6 days from March 16 to 22, 1990 . The movement was an important event in Taiwan's transition from one-party dominance of the Kuomintang (KMT) to a democratic, multi-party society.
Political background
In 1990 the Republic of China and Taiwan (both terms are used synonymously in the following) were in a phase of upheaval. The state of emergency that had existed since 1949 was officially ended in 1987 after 38 years. New parties were allowed to be founded and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), founded in 1986, soon established itself as the leading opposition party. However, all positions of political power (president, prime minister, higher administration) initially remained in the hands of the previously sole ruling Kuomintang. Within the Kuomintang there was a reform wing and a more conservative wing, which the political reforms were advancing too quickly and which would have liked to slow down the pace of reform. Lee Teng-hui had been acting president since 1988 and it was initially unclear in which direction he would move permanently. After the bloody suppression of the student movement in the Tian'anmen massacre in Beijing on June 4, 1989, a wave of anti-communist sentiment swept through Taiwan. The reform-oriented voices became quieter for a time and the anti-communist hardliners in the ranks of the KMT were given more attention again.
1990 presidential election
The mode of presidential elections developed into a major criticism of the opposition. According to the previous constitution, the president was elected by the National Assembly. This National Assembly was elected across China (Mainland and Taiwan Island) in 1946. There had been no new elections since then, as the communists had taken control of the mainland . Once elected, the delegates remained in office permanently. Only the 84 delegates from Taiwan Province were newly elected in 1986. At the beginning of March, the 670 delegates of the National Assembly met to elect the new president. The meeting place was the Chungshan Hall ( 中山 樓 ) in Yangmingshan National Park ( Beitou District ) in Taipei. The majority of these delegates were already over 80 years old and some had to be driven to the meeting in wheelchairs. Some voters were not able to raise their hands to vote alone and had to be supported by family members. The oldest delegate was 100 years old and was from Hubei Province .
Among the 670 delegates were 11 DPP MPs elected in Taiwan Province who arbitrarily changed the expression “represents the people of the Republic of China” to “represents the people of Taiwan” during the election procedure and were subsequently excluded from the election .
The official presidential candidate of the Kuomintang became the incumbent President Lee Teng-hui, who elected Li Yuan-tsu as vice-president. However, there were also conservative forces in the KMT who mistrusted Lee, classified as a reformer, and wanted to nominate the president of the judiciary Yuan Lin Yang-kang in his place , as well as Chiang Wei-kuo , Chiang Kai-shek's adopted son , as his deputy which, however, was unsuccessful. In addition, the conservative forces sought a reform of the National Assembly, after which it would have received the legislative initiative and a veto right over decisions of the Legislative Yuan .
Wild Lily Protests
In view of the developments described in the National Assembly that was in session, there were student protests. The protests began on March 16 with a sit-in of a few students from Taiwan National University in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in central Taipei. The students unfolded a banner there that read 我們 怎能 再 容忍 七百 個 皇帝 的 „(“ How can we tolerate the oppression of more than 700 emperors? ”). Word of the protest spread quickly, and students from across the country traveled to Taipei to join the demonstrators. The number of demonstrators grew to several thousand in the following days, and university teachers also joined them.
The protesting students chose a white lily as a symbol. The idea for this came from some art students who made a meter-high sculpture of a lily out of white canvas and bamboo sticks, which was erected on March 21, 1990. This symbol was also a reminiscence of the events in Tian'anmen, where the protesting students had erected a statue of the " goddess of democracy ". This statue was very similar to the American Statue of Liberty , which Taipei students found inappropriate, and so they chose a more traditional symbol instead.
The protesters elected a seven-person coordinating committee that made the following demands to the president:
- Dissolution of the National Assembly
- Repeal of the "Temporary injunctions during the national mobilization to suppress the communist rebellion" ( 動員 戡 亂 時期 臨時 條款 ), an exceptional law from 1948 that restricted the basic rights of the constitution,
- Convening a national conference to discuss constitutional amendments,
- a precise timetable for political and economic reforms.
The protesters emphasized their independence from the party and refused to participate in a DPP demonstration on March 18 and 19, 1990. Quite a few students stayed overnight in the square and were provided with food by local residents.
On the morning of March 19, 1990, Education Minister Mao Kao-wen went to the demonstration site and presented the demonstrators with a letter from the President. In this, the president assured that he would continue the reform process and called on the students to end the demonstration and return to order. Disappointed with this answer, several dozen students went on hunger strike. On March 21, two professors attending the demonstrations who had negotiated directly with the president announced that he was ready to receive a delegation of 50 students.
On the evening of March 21, the student delegation met with the President. President Lee assured the students that he would convene the required national conference as soon as he was sworn in in May. He also pledged a timetable for political and economic reforms. A new legislative yuan election and constitutional changes could take place within the next two years. With regard to the dissolution of the National Assembly, Lee emphasized that he did not have the constitutional authority to do so, but that this topic would be discussed at the planned national conference.
On March 22, 1990, the leaders of the demonstration decided to end it. On the one hand, this was justified with the widespread acceptance of the demonstrators' demands; on the other hand, there was fear that students close to the Kuomintang could infiltrate the demonstration and, as agent provocateurs , provoke violent clashes in the event, which had been peaceful so far.
consequences
President Lee essentially kept the promises he made to student representatives. From June 28 to July 4, 1990, a "Conference on National Affairs" was held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, attended by 140 politicians and intellectuals from various directions (KMT and DPP). The conference agreed that in future the president should be directly elected and that there should be parliamentary and constitutional reforms. However, the final communiqué remained relatively vague. On April 30, 1991, President Lee announced the end of the "Mobilization to Suppress the Communist Rebellion" and the "Temporary Orders". This was decided at the session of the National Assembly from April 8 to 23, 1991. The members of the National Assembly still elected in mainland China had to give up their parliamentary seats by the end of 1991. The new election of a national assembly consisting of 327 members took place at the end of 1991. On December 19, 1992, a legislative yuan with 161 MPs was also elected . The president was first directly elected in 1996 .
The Wild Lily Movement became the model for later student movements in Taiwan. In 2008, the “ Wild Strawberry Student Movement ” took place here, and in 2014 the “ Sunflower Movement ”, both of which were directed against the rapprochement between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, which was perceived as too extensive.
The 2014 “ umbrella movement ” in Hong Kong was also at least partially inspired by the Taiwanese student movements.
Web links
- Han Cheung: Taiwan in Time: Warming up for the Wild Lily , Taipei Times, March 13, 2016 (brief review article)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g “Taipei Spring”? - Anachronistic process, but Lee promises reforms . In: Taiwan Communiqué . No. 44 , April 1990, ISSN 1027-3999 (English, PDF ).
- ↑ Hsin-Hsing Chen: My Wild Lily: a self-criticism from a participant in the March 1990 student movement . In: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies . tape 6 , no. 4 , 2005, p. 591-608 , doi : 10.1080 / 14649370500316927 (English).
- ↑ 動員 戡 亂 時期 臨時 條款 (Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion). Retrieved June 21, 2018 (Chinese, English).
- ^ The National Affairs Conference Milestone or window dressing? In: Taiwan Communiqué . No. 45 , August 1990, ISSN 1027-3999 , pp. 1–5 (English, PDF ).
- ↑ a b Ending the Period of Communist Rebellion . In: Taiwan Communiqué . No. 50 , June 1991, ISSN 1027-3999 , pp. 1–5 (English, PDF ).
- ↑ Lawrence Chung: Civil disobedience movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong similar, but goals differ. October 1, 2014, accessed June 21, 2018 .