Qualla: Tang Te-chang Memorial Park

Tang Te-chang Memorial Park: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Before soldiers shot him at this park on March 13, 1947, Tang Te-chang burned a list of names. It was his last act as leader of the Tainan branch of the 228 Handling Committee — the civilian body trying to negotiate calm during the February 28 Incident — and it was a deliberate one. The list held the names of his fellow committee members. By destroying it, Tang ensured that the Nationalist military forces closing in on Tainan could not use it to find and arrest the people who had worked alongside him. He was protecting others, right to the end.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Tang Te-chang Memorial Park: A Lawyer in a City Under Pressure

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mk2010, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tang Te-chang was a respected figure in Tainan long before the crisis of 1947. He had studied law in Tokyo and returned to practice in southern Taiwan, eventually becoming a city assemblyman as well. He was the kind of person communities turn to when they need someone credible, m...

Image: Mk2010 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Tang Te-chang Memorial Park: March 13, 1947

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pbdragonwang, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tang was arrested on March 11, 1947. Two days later, on March 13, he was brought to the park and shot. The proceedings against him were not a trial in any recognized legal sense — there was no fair hearing, no presentation of evidence, no legal defense. He was killed as the Natio...

Image: Pbdragonwang | CC BY-SA 3.0

Tang Te-chang Memorial Park: From Taisho Park to Memorial Ground

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The park itself has a layered history that predates 1947. During the Japanese colonial era it was known first as Kodama Park, after a statue of Kodama Gentarō — the fourth Governor-General of Taiwan — erected by local residents in 1907. Later it was renamed Taisho Park. After Tai...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Tang Te-chang Memorial Park: The Bust at the Center

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KevinAction, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the park is small, circular, and unhurried. It sits in West Central District, a short walk southwest of Tainan Station, ringed by traffic and enclosed by an urban neighborhood that has changed dramatically around it. At its center stands the bust of Tang Te-chang, a man in ...

Image: KevinAction | CC BY-SA 3.0