In December of 1972, a student society at National Taiwan University sponsored two seminars on nationalism. The controversy they led to resulted in the dismissal of more than 10 philosophy department lecturers, assistant professors and professors in what was known as the "philosophy department incident." Twenty years later, the waves stirred up by the incident have yet to subside. Today, with those involved still disagreeing about what took place, various parties have requested that the university quickly form an investigatory committee to clear up this matter and reveal its findings publicly.
Chen Ku-ying, formerly an associate professor of philosophy at National Taiwan University and a key player in the "philosophy department incident," applied for visas to return to Taiwan 16 times over the course of 14 years before finally being granted entry at the end of April.
As someone "eternally in opposition," Chen Ku-ying is seemingly forever a controversial figure on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In Taiwan Chen Ku-ying was forced from his job three times. The first was in 1966 when he was at Chinese Culture College (now Chinese Culture University). He was dismissed for responding to a student's question about the February 28 incident. Later he went to National Taiwan University, where his services were discontinued when military police discovered a book by Marx in his student's house. Then he was sent to the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University, where for five years he was forbidden from lecturing and publishing articles. In 1978, prohibited from teaching and with seemingly no future in academia, he and his partner, now legislator Chen Wan-chen, ran for National Assembly and Legislative Yuan elections, and he lost his job for the third time. The elections were suspended when it was announced that the R.O.C and the United States were breaking off diplomatic relations.
In 1985 in order to collect information about Chen Tu-hsiou, a figure in the May 4 Movement, Chen Ku-ying went to mainland China and later served as visiting professor at the philosophy department of Beijing University. When the Tiananmen incident occurred on June 4, 1989, Chen Ku-ying publicly supported the students' movement, and once again his services were no longer needed.
When he first came back, he could not help but carry with him some of the attitudes of the Martial Law Period, and there was much he didn't dare say. In answering reporters' questions at press conferences, he would frequently ask those accompanying him, "Is there any harm by my speaking this way?" But there was no way to conceal his joy at having returned. Passing through Hongkong on the way, he specially had a new suit made for himself.
"History's twists of fate are often not those that human wisdom can predict." When Yin Hai-kuang, the late professor of philosophy at NTU, said this line, he was gripped by the thought and concepts of the May Fourth Movement, which had spread like a storm. But fate would not let him share in the glory of the May Fourth activists, and the movement had long since died out before he came of age.
Chen has always been regarded as "a dissident" and as far as Chen Ku-ying is concerned he lost his job at National Taiwan University because what he said was off-limits. He was left to wander the world. Today, when he sees with his own eyes open discussion in the R.O.C., when he sees how some people's fortunes have risen as others' have fallen, he sees how the twists of history have been proved in his life experiences. It makes him feel even less in the driver's seat.
In his eyes, what are the differences between Taiwan then and now? How has he changed himself?
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