Day 5: Final Day in Taipei

Donning our business-casual attire once more this morning, we prepared ourselves for another day of dialogues with three different speakers. After eating our pan-fried pork and cabbage dumplings for breakfast (and some of us drinking a shot of passionfruit), we started our day riding the coach bus to our first event of the day: a tour at the National Human Rights Museum.

At the National Human Rights Museum, we learned about the history of Taiwan’s marshal law through a tour and life story given by our guest speaker and former political prisoner Mr. Chen, Chin-Sheng. In 1971, Mr. Chen, Chin-Sheng was only a twenty-one-year old university student when he was arrested without reason and imprisoned for twelve years. He spoke of the injustice and inhumane treatment he was subjected to by the military court and the detention center, but the thing that left the deepest impression on me was Mr. Chen Chin-Sheng’s resilience and strength of character. Despite the inhumanity that he faced, he held no hate in his heart; rather, he only wanted the upcoming generation like us to know of Taiwan’s past so that no injustice like such as can ever happen again.

After a sweet karaoke session of classic old Chinese songs like The Moon Represents My Heart and a very brief lunch, we went to our next dialogue where we visited the Kuomingtang Party History Archive House and spoke with guest speaker Mr. Lin, Chia-Hsing. The experience was full of surprises—for instance, even if it was only a courtesy or classic technique to increase one’s ethos, I was surprised by how genuine he seemed when he told us to meet with the DPP or TPP and hear their side of the story. I also did not expect him to be so forward with saying that they want to reinitiate talks with China. The most amusing moment of the meeting was when Mr. Lin was talking about how his alma mater, NYU, compared to its rival school, Columbia, and unintentionally ended up dissing Benny’s alma mater (since Benny went to Columbia).

Our last dialogue of the day was with the National Development Council, where guest speaker Tom Fifield gave an insight into Taiwan’s policies for immigration and its population crisis and how the Taiwan Employment Gold Card came to be as a form of response. Speaker Bradley Orr also gave insight into Taiwan’s work culture and how to navigate it, and we got to converse with the people there and increase our LinkedIn connections.

In a rare moment of respite from the hustle and bustle of our busy schedule, we had a free afternoon! Karina, Anya, Sienna, Ryan and I decided to go visit Ximending, Taipei’s daytime and evening shopping district. We watched the market shift from day to night, and it’s there that it truly hits me that it’s our last day in Taipei. Taipei never seems to have a boring moment, which makes it all the harder to leave this chapter of our trip behind. Tonight, some pack their bags while others rest up as we all prepare for the ride over to Hsinchu tomorrow.