Open Collections

Vu, Linh

Database of Religious History (DRH)

In 1946, the Nationalist leadership began renovating the Taipei Shinto shrine into the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine to house the displaced spirits of the national dead. Renovated and renamed the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in 1969, the structure served as the national altar of the Republic of China in exile. As the Martyrs’ Shrine establishes the sacrifice of life as the highest mark of citizenship, necrocitizenship ––posthumous membership in the national community–– is reserved for Nationalist stalwarts and those whose loyalty can be similarly construed. The National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine is a fascinating example of how religion and state intersect in allegedly secular countries. The shrine originated from Sun Yat-sen’s aspiration to commemorate the anti-imperial martyrs of the 1911 Republic and the Nationalist government’s attempt to marshal political allegiance during the Japanese invasion in the 1930s–1940s. Throughout the Cold War era, the spring and autumn sacrifices performed by the heads of state and visits to the shrine by foreign dignitaries served to affirm the sovereignty of the Republic of China over the People’s Republic of China. Even though the end of martial law in 1987 ushered in a new era marked by the Nationalist Party’s loss of political hegemony, the shrine continued to adhere to the Nationalist Party ideology and its commemoration of Nationalist version of history. Presidents of the Republic of China, Taiwan, regardless of their political affiliation, regularly perform worship at the shrine. The ceremonies include the spring and autumn sacrifices, enshrinement of martyrs, and paying homage to the Yellow Emperor and Sun Yat-sen. The palace-style compound is a site of contested sovereignty exaggerated by China’s extraordinary growth and Taiwan’s transforming identity. The enshrined ancestors of the Republic of China have also found a new role as both an assertion of Taiwan’s autonomy and a reflection of its dynamism in the international arena. Although the enshrinement of Republican-era heroes is part of the nation-building project under the Nationalist regime, these men also embody the struggle against imperialism (of China’s past) and authoritarianism (of China’s present).

Other

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0438247

Non UBC

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/