‘Democratic Taiwan’ badges sell out, more to come
By Esme Yeh / Staff writer, with CNA
“Democratic Taiwan” souvenir badges created by the National Cultural Association of Taiwan for the Double Ten National Day holiday have sold out, with more to go on sale in December.
The 11 badges would be available along with additional new designs on UN Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, the association said on Monday.
The badges, designed by Chiu Hsi-min (邱璽民) and a group of young designers on the invitation of the association, were created for the Presidential Office Building’s National Day projection mapping show this year, echoing the show’s theme of “Democratic Taiwan, the Heartbeat of the World.”
Eleven badges designed for the Presidential Office Building’s National Day projection mapping show are pictured on Monday.
Photo: CNA
While this year marks the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s direct presidential election, the 11 badge designs all revolve around important democracy movements in the nation’s history.
For example, the 228 Incident badge commemorates the shooting of protesters by security personnel at the at the Governor-General’s Office in Taipei (currently the Executive Yuan building) on Feb. 28, 1947, while the Formosa Incident” badge reminds Taiwanese of the pursuit of democracy under ruthless authoritarian rule.
Other designs were inspired by critical historical events marking democratic shifts, including the lifting of martial law in 1987, the abolition of article 100 of the Criminal Code in 1992 and Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in 1996.
Badges depicting various social movements in Taiwan are projected onto the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Wednesday last week.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Article 100 of the Criminal Code was used as justification to penalize people for “intending” to commit a crime of sedition, and was a primary legal tool of repression during the Martial Law era.
Pro-democracy student movements were also included, such as the Wild Lily movement in 1990, the Wild Strawberries movement in 2008 and the Sunflower movement in 2014.
One of the designs features the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally held on Feb. 28, 2004 — a large-scale demonstration against Chinese military threats famous for its 500km-long hand-in-hand human chain.
The designers said that it was a wonderful journey creating the badges.
They revisited the commonly known historical events and gained a new understanding of the past, which prompted them to rethink the Taiwanese values of today, they said.
Visiting the history of Taiwan through the badges was like taking a make-up class on the nation’s democratization journey, the designers said.
The association on Oct. 2 launched a capsule vending machine containing the badges at the South Taipei Space No. 1 exhibition room in its building.
The machine sold out of badges on launch day.
Two capsule vending machines featuring the badges were also set up near the Presidential Office Building alongside the projection mapping show, which ran from Oct. 7 to Saturday last week.
The two machines’ badges were offered in limited volume capped at a collective total of 250 badges per day, with each person allowed to draw two capsules each time.
People waited in line from as early as 5pm and waited for the machines to open at 6pm.
The line ran from Ketagalan Boulevard down Guiyang Street.
The association said the badges were manufactured by local Taiwanese companies, adding that the 11 badges would be available again on UN Human Rights Day and new designs would also be introduced.
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