President Tsai Ing-wen visited Martyr’s Shrine in Taipei on Monday to pay her respects to the founding father of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, as well as the nation’s martyrs. The visit was in keeping with protocol for newly inaugurated presidents of the Republic of China (ROC), which is the official name of Taiwan’s government.
Tsai was accompanied by the incoming vice president and the heads of the five branches of Taiwan’s government. The simple ceremony involved singing the national anthem, making an offering of a ceremonial wreath, and bowing three times.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang said that Monday morning’s tribute was a departure from past tributes, which involved more complex ceremonies focusing largely on Sun Yat-sen.
“This year it was a tribute to the founding father and the nation’s martyrs. After all, we have already entered a democratic era, so we have discontinued [the more complex tribute of the past]. But this simpler tribute was still solemn and ceremonious, and the intention was the same," said Huang.
About a dozen Taiwan independence activists held a small protest outside of the Martyr’s Shrine. They held up banners and shouted slogans expressing their opposition to the visit.
The protestors were calling for an end to tributes to historical figures connected to what they called “colonizing powers”. That’s because both Sun Yat-sen and the people memorialized at Martyr’s Shrine are connected to the Republic of China government, which did not arrive in Taiwan until the late 1940s.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang said the government respected the diversity of viewpoints in Taiwan society.