National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Liberty Square

On local signs, the memorial is called Zhongzheng. This is Chiang Kai-shek's official name; the familiar Russian form “Kaishi” comes from another of his names. He led the Kuomintang (KMT), moved the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan after its defeat in the civil war, and remained president until his death.

Chiang Kai-shek is not buried here. Preparations for the memorial began after his death on April fifth, nineteen seventy-five. The Taipei government had already planned to turn this former military site into a commercial center, but it now ordered the remaining barracks demolished. The Bank of Taiwan and the post office opened a donation drive, and architects submitted forty-three designs.

Yang Cho-cheng won. He had previously built The Grand Hotel. He turned the dead president's biography into a route across the square: eighty-nine steps lead to the upper hall, matching the number of Chiang's years under the traditional Chinese system of counting age. Behind the white walls and blue roof above is a spacious hall with a seated bronze figure.

The figure was commissioned from Chen Yi-fan, a former air force officer who supported himself with sculpture commissions after retiring. He had already made more than ten images of Chiang Kai-shek, but this time a statue as tall as a two-story house was required. In nineteen seventy-six, Chen modeled a figure about one meter eighty centimeters tall, then began enlarging it at a temporary site in the Muzha district.

Working on the scaffolding, the sculptor fell and was injured. His wife found him when she came to bring food. Chen returned to work, but the finished model was nearly halted for another reason: veterans of the Kuomintang (KMT), who had known the president personally, decided that the face was not a close enough likeness. Chen Li-an, head of the National Science Council, demanded that the artistic decision be left to the sculptor. The figure was not remade to accommodate the comments of every acquaintance of Chiang.

In nineteen seventy-nine, twenty-five metric tons of bronze were provided for casting. The finished statue weighs just over twenty-one metric tons and rises six meters thirty centimeters. Chiang is shown seated and smiling; the words “Ethics, Democracy, Science” are carved behind the chair. On April fourth, nineteen eighty, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of his father's death, President Chiang Ching-kuo opened the memorial before several thousand invited guests.

Exhibition halls are now located beneath the statue, and the broad avenue of Liberty Square is used for performances and major city events. The military honor guard conducts weapon ceremonies every hour at the foot of the stairs. Above it remains the bronze Chiang—the very image Chen Yi-fan finished after his fall and refused to remake from the recollections of numerous advisers.