Qualla: 27 Brigade

27 Brigade: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. They were, most of them, very young. Students who had studied under Japanese rule. Workers who had apprenticed in factories and workshops. Former soldiers who had survived World War II fighting in the Imperial Japanese Army, only to return home to a Taiwan that was changing faster than anyone could manage. When the February 28 Incident erupted across Taiwan in late February 1947 — sparked by a brutal beating of a widow and the killing of bystanders by Nationalist agents in Taipei — the people of Taichung did not wait to see what would happen next. They organized.

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0

27 Brigade: February 28 and the World It Made

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tobias Wolter, CC BY-SA 3.0. To understand the 27 Brigade, you have to understand what February 28, 1947 meant for Taiwan. Japan had ruled the island for fifty years; the generation that came of age under that rule had been educated in Japanese schools, served in Japanese institutions, and in many cases foug...

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Image: Tobias Wolter | CC BY-SA 3.0

27 Brigade: Who They Were

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. The force that became known as the 27 Brigade was organized under the influence of Xie Xuehong, a prominent figure of the Taiwanese Communist Party during the Japanese period and one of the few people in Taichung with any experience in political organizing. But the rank and file ...

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0

27 Brigade: Fifteen Days

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. The brigade's active life was short. On March 15, 1947 — roughly two weeks after the uprising began — Kuomintang reinforcements arrived in Taichung from the mainland. The brigade sent out detachments to engage the incoming troops. They succeeded in forcing the KMT units back, but...

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0

27 Brigade: What Remains

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. For decades, the February 28 Incident was not spoken of in Taiwan. The KMT government that had carried out the crackdown remained in power, and the events of 1947 were effectively erased from public life. Survivors and their families kept silence, often out of fear. The recovery...

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0

27 Brigade: Taichung Today

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. The city where the 27 Brigade formed is now Taiwan's third-largest metropolitan area, a sprawling center of industry, culture, and education. The National Museum of Natural Science, one of Taiwan's most visited, sits in a city that has remade itself many times over since 1947. Th...

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0