Remembering Su Beng Taiwanese Revolutionary with Jiho Chang Ep 156

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

November 9^th would be the 103rd the birthday of the late revolutionary, Taiwan independence activist, and historian Su Beng (史明), who passed away on September 20, 2019. I’ve been working on his English-language biography and I wanted to remember him on this day.

In this episode of Talking Taiwan, I spoke with Jiho Chang one of the co-authors of The Oral History of Su Beng (史明口述史), a three-volume book that he and others collaborated on while attending the National Taiwan University. In addition to talking about Su Beng’s legacy, Jiho shared some personal stories about Su Beng, and talked about Su Beng’s role in the Sunflower Movement.

At the end of the episode, I share some of my fondest memories of Su Beng.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• The public funeral/memorial that was organized for Su Beng on October
• Su Beng’s lifelong commitment to the cause of Taiwan’s independence
• The noodle shop that Su Beng opened in 1950s in Ikebukuro, Japan
• The underground and after hours activities that happened at the noodle shop
• The third and fourth floors of the noodle shop is being converted into a museum
• How Su Beng’s residence in New Taipei has been converted into a museum
• Su Beng’s connection to Taiwan’s current president Tsai Ing-wen
• How Jiho first heard of and met Su Beng
• The 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis
• The English language version of Su Beng’s book, Taiwan’s 400 Year History The Chinese language version of Su Beng’s book, 台彎人四百年史(The Taiwanese People’s 400 Years of History)
• China’s Anti-secession Law
• Su Beng’s sit-in to protest China’s Anti-secession Law in 2005
• How Jiho joined Su Beng’s protest of China’s Anti-secession Law and got to know Su Beng
• The parallels and comparison between Su Beng and Che Guevara
• How Jiho, Lán Shì-bó / Nâ Sū-phok (藍士博) and others National Taiwan University students started interviewing Su Beng and wrote a three-volume book, The Oral History of Su Beng(史明口述史)
• Su Beng’s hospitalization for kidney failure in Japan in 2009
• Su Beng’s life in Japan as a student at Waseda University
• Su Beng’s family background
• Su Beng’s Japanese girlfriend/partner who he met while in China
• Su Beng’s love of Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Su Beng’s special relationship with his maternal grandmother
• Su Beng’s role in the 2014 Sunflower movement

Related Links:

Jiho Chang’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JihoTiun/

Su Beng’s website: https://www.tw400.org.tw/

About Su Beng website: http://aboutsubeng.com/

The Story of Su Beng Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thestoryofsubeng

Su Beng’s wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Beng

The 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis

China’s Anti-secession Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Secession_Law_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

Su Beng’s noodle shop in Ikebukuro, Japan

Learn about Su Beng’s noodle shop in the blog post from: http://aboutsubeng.com/blog/2010/10/noodle-shop-that-could

The Taiwan Independence Action Motorcade (獨立台灣會)

Learn more from the www.aboutsubeng.com blog post about the Taiwan Independence Action Motorcade (獨立台灣會): http://aboutsubeng.com/blog/2007/04/weekend-of-commemoration-april-5-7-2007.html

The Revolutionary in New York event organized for Su Beng on July 22, 2011: http://aboutsubeng.com/blog/2011/07/july-22-su-beng-214-sullivan-st.html

Sunflower Movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement

The music video for “Island’s Sunrise” (島嶼天光) in which Su Beng makes a cameo appearance: https://youtu.be/iV8JDbtXZm4

Video of Su Beng arriving at the end of the occupation of the Legislative Yuan on April 10, 2014: https://youtu.be/WasPzayqVPI

Felicia Lin’s interview about Su Beng for BBC Radio 4’s Last Word: https://talkingtaiwan.com/felicia-lin-guest-interviews/