Human Rights Tour: Application of Life Story Maps in Taiwan

Xianmei L

Published on: 2023-06-15

Abstract

Many cities in the world have been seeking a way to design and cultivate sustainable tourism development. This paper uses image materials with thematic sightseeing guides to provide references for sustainable tourism. It also explores the relationship between text and spatial memory by connecting the database and context of time and space and the application of geographic information systems as research methods. The digitization of Taiwan literature and history has produced considerable results, including various databases such as the "White Horror Literature Catalog Database", "Historical Sites of Injustice Database", and "Taiwan Transformation Justice Database". National Taiwan University's digital humanities academic research platform geographic information tool (DocuGIS), also facilitates the establishment of a personal database and cloud mapping. The application of geographic information system to city tourism not only connects the context of time and space but also contains values of human rights, helping to deepen cross-domain academic research and broaden social influence.

Keywords

City tourism; Dark tourism; Human rights; GIS; Digital humanities

Introduction

Human rights issues have long been discussed in many parts of the world, and in recent years, the focus has been on the practice of transitional justice. The travel theme is a way to promote social education, through which travelers from all over the world visit the site to understand the relationship between historical trajectories and universal values. However, the story of Taiwan's White Terror period has received little attention from the world, and even people living in Taiwan are not very clear about the context of the incidents. How to make travelers sympathize and understand the suffering caused by the issue of human rights? This article uses the concept of the "human rights tour" to experience the situation of victims during the White Terror period through travel, and use the life stories of victims to enhance the effectiveness of transformational justice activities.

Travel is an important experience economy and a way to promote the value of the city [1,2]. The process of the city image promotion plan, city tourism products design, city tourism strategy planning, etc., not only enhances the city's cohesion and sense of place but also attracts tourism consumers [3]. In the era of globalization, city authorities around the world have adopted urban tourism strategies as an open strategy to the world. Famous international cities have long focused their tourism on urban highlights, accentuating the features of politics, economy, culture, history, people, and space [4]. In my experience of the Freedom Trail in Boston, witnessing its creativity is a way to attract tourists worldwide to travel in depth.

The Freedom Trail was proposed by Boston journalist William Schofield in 1951, with the goal that visitors can gradually about the history of American independence on foot. The municipality of Boston accepted the proposal and designed a historical and cultural sightseeing route. The pedestrian path marked with red bricks on the ground is about 4 kilometers long and runs through 16 important historical monuments in downtown Boston [5]. With the plan of the landmark and brief introduction, this is a world classic "walking history" route. Half of Boston's historical tourism essence is concentrated on this road. Travel agencies are happy to make it the main route, and independent travelers and backpackers like to walk on this route as well. Many subway routes are interspersed with this freedom trail, thus making it very convenient. Entering the node of this road helps to understand the history of the American independent revolution, the spirit of the American Constitution and the value of pursuing freedom and democracy, or the thought trajectories of famous figures such as Washington, Franklin, and Adams [6,7]. In addition, along the route tourists can appreciate historical buildings and various cultural performances, it has become classic in the creative design of urban tourism culture.

The relevant literature on ‘dark tourism’ did not include Taiwan White Terror as an example [8-12]. However, Taiwan is a wonderful example of promoting landscape in the martial period. My paper fills this gap in the scholarship by telling life stories to enlighten systemic issues caused by governmental control, such as limited freedom and poor quality of education. Reading the series of essays Walking Through the Long Night written by Taiwanese victims, family members, relatives and friends, and interviewers, I learned that during the period of martial law from 1949 to 1987, intellectual elites were arrested, interrogated, tortured by the ruling authorities, understanding their life story of participating in transformational justice after the liftingof martial law [13,14]. The data sources include diaries, essays, memories, and interviews that the authors conducted. All the texts were digitalized to put the first-hand data into the database. The data processing method through Docusky and DocuGIS does hold an advantage over traditional interviews. At the same time, I discuss existing research and the gaps identified in this research. The current research is short of Taiwan despite its importance. The significance of Taiwan lies in its historical landscapes, and the authors write down their vital life stories or experiences. These data address the research objectives questions.

How do apply spatial information to tourist guides for human rights themes? This article combines the application of geographic information and digital humanities to explore the life story trajectory during the martial law period [15]. Using geographic information tools on the digital humanities academic research platform of National Taiwan University, combined with cross-domain applications, and analyzing multiple contexts through the database, I are likely to reinterpret the universal value of Taiwan's human rights themes. This paper uses image materials with thematic sightseeing guides to provide references for sustainable tourism. The discussion of the human rights tour makes cross-disciplinary contributions to the study of transitional justice in the whole world.

Related Literature

Reviewing humanities research with the assistance of digital technology and information analysis technology not only enables its resources to transcend the constraints of institutions, national boundaries, domains, etc. but also can further identify the multiple contexts “in the data. Digital Humanities Research Series introduces the development and achievements of digital humanities, analyzing the changes in humanities research methods and the academic environment by digital technology [16-18]. Digital humanities emphasize the compilation of large-scale historical materials to facilitate researchers’ observation and even to explore the clues that are hard to reach by handwork. A detailed and imaginative interpretation of the text is the primary condition for studying the humanities, and digital technology can play a supporting role as a finishing touch. It seems the traditional techniques of computer and historiographyhave found a new joint point, which has become an important key and way to open a new world of humanistic research. Geographical research uses software to digitize the map and build a map database to observe the difference in the urban appearance between the past and the present. It is obvious that digitization is of great help to reconstruct the historical landscape and changes in the city.

In recent years, with the breakthrough of many informational technologies, many new research tools are available to researchers. With the development of digital humanities platforms and tools, humanities researchers can conduct research via different angles and with new approaches. Through the DocuGIS provided in this article, I hope to introduce the application of metatags technology used in digital humanities to the academic communities so that researchers who employ similar methodologies can try out such methods in analyzing personal research data. I hope to suggest future avenues of humanities research for analyzing texts. With the advancement of digital tools and technology, I try to use the Docusky digital humanities academic research platform to analyze the White Horror Passion stories. Through the cooperation of digital platforms and tools, researchers can easily build a personal database of story texts, and can also use functions such as metadata and metatags in the platform to help researchers to analyze the text according to their problem awareness. Through Docusky, I can organize and observe the life story texts on the theme of human rights, and discuss the life course and transformation process of the martial law period reflected in the texts, as well as the social context of different texts.

About the issue of White Terror-related literature, some articles focus on the mix of historical pain and horror genre and monstrous past. The digital and cinematic remakes of the White Terror mediate the unaccountable trauma via the techno- enhanced immersive horror across screens and art. This unique strategy speaks to the spectators with profundity in the art and media [19]. Taiwan is a special case because besides directly punishing its people, the Taiwanese government and the KMT control the media and the education system during the martial period. The government limits the freedom of speech so much, that they will destroy books so that readers cannot learn about the topic of freedom or issues about criticism of the government [20]. Using memories literature will allow people to learn about the historical experiences of victims during this time period.

According to Chapter 13 of the book Landscape of Fear, under the Empire in Rome, citizens convicted of crimes against the state could be banished to a deserted island, where their chances for survival were slim, or could be given the death penalty. By A.D. 222, death had become the punishment for all but the mildest forms of treason [21]. Yi-Fu Tuan is more concerned with the description of the Empire. Taiwan is relatively important because of governmental policies that control the citizens during the martial period. By connecting the landscape with the economic experiences of tourists and their life stories, I can establish meaning. This paper is similar to Landscape of Fear which also discusses the topic of landscape [21]. Both works conceptualize landscape as a representation of the historical background and the sense of fear existing among the people. However, they are different in their time frame since the book talks more about the past imperial period, while this paper examines the period from 1949 to 1987 in Taiwan. Another difference is that the book focuses on Europe, America, and Africa, while this paper analyzes Asia in the 20th century.

Chapter 7 of Tourist Gaze 3.0 focuses on the history of the gaze. From this, I can date the birth of the tourist gaze in the west to around 1840. This is the moment when the ‘tourist gaze’ becomes a core component of western modernity [22]. It becomes a peculiar combination of the means of collective travel, the desire for travel, and the techniques of photographic reproduction. So a new tourism paradigm challenged the tourist gaze as Urry became increasingly concerned about the bad points to which the global tourist gaze contributes. These issues frame the 3.0 version that illuminates some of the embodied and darker sides of the tourist gaze. In the new edition of Tourist Gaze 3.0 with the title places of death, the focus shifts from criticism to the special characteristics of tourism. Places of death transmute into places for visitors, appearing on ever-new tourist itineraries, part of the consumption practices of dark tourism. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, there appeared calls for American ‘patriotic tourism’, to make sure that Americans got on those planes and went to places to play, to show the enemy that they could not win, and that the fear of death could be defeated. As noted, a record number of tourists flocked to New York in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks [22]. These places of death, disaster, and suffering have been transformed into places of leisure, which often charge an entrance fee, provide interpretation, and sell various services and souvenirs. Many of these places developed and continued to thrive because of well-organized enthusiasts and fans. I seek to engage in an act of transformation justice, which not only represents history but also pertains to questions of human rights. It is, thus, important both for Taiwan and for humanity in general.

Landscape of Fear and Tourist Gaze3.0 did not include Taiwan as an example of dark tourism. The book focuses on the social sciences and criticizes the gaze of the tourist; thereby they neglect the historical and cultural meaning of the tourist experience. In contrast, my concern is about the freedom trial. Specifically, I use literature as an example of research because it includes life stories and experiences of the victims. A more explicit explanation of the historical changes in the landscape is a positive way to inspire tourists. Compared to Urry who focuses on the tourist gaze and the impact of the technique of photos, I use a technique that combines literature, digital humanities, and GIS.

The term ‘dark tourism’ refers to tourist activities or experiences that involve themes of death or disaster. In terms of the relevant literature on Taiwan, the current literature explores tourism at war heritage and post-natural disaster sites. However, it can be considered as part of investigating tourism at the sites associated with past authoritarian rule. With the passage of time platform, the economy is booming largely due to new innovations, information technology, and the rapidly globalizing world. Tourism Platform-based innovation ecosystems are transforming our global tourism business landscape in multiple ways [23,24]. My paper on the human rights tour not only echoes the ongoing campaign of transitional justice as promoted on the island but also points to the universal pursuit of freedom and democracy in the twenty-first century.

Methodology

The Link between the Database and the Context of Time and Space

I chose to use data from open-sourced databases for my analysis. The recent

publication of those databases allows for the drawing of connections between different literary works, including memoirs, electronic books, and historical works. In those electronic books, family members recall the memories of their deceased relatives. Some of the electronic books are written by family members and others are interviews, and they are all digitized and turned into a database. Since some writers had passed away, those electronic books supplement the historical data that I cannot get from them for the time being.

The advantage of analyzing books lies in their characteristics as written texts. While interviews force the narrator to respond to the questions and do not allow for revisions of the answers, a book opens up the opportunity for the author to express themselves by using metaphors or interpretations and voicing their emotions. Since it is a written work, it can be revised and rethought before being published. In addition, it is painful to interview old people because it makes them relive old memories and thus negatively affects their health. The importance of personal writing, such as diaries and memoirs, is the style of self-expression and the creation of something from the heart.

In these works, the authors witnessed history and suffering. Their texts are not just historical, but documents of human rights. There are so many stories about real-life experiences. For example, when the materials appeared in Taiwan, authors risked being sent to jail, if they did not obey the government. This even happened to young authors who were just students. Now, Taiwan is a democracy; so compared to the past, it can be said to be a case of human rights in Asia. The fear of the landscape is not being discussed in modern society. While the policies are changeable, Taiwan's landscape stays the same. This is why it is meaningful to focus on works that reflect the landscape in the past. This is different because they are describing the past, instead of modern society. Taiwan appears important in consideration of culture, and governmental policies of controlling the citizens. We can see that a combination of the landscape and the lifestory makes sense.

"Digital Humanities" is a combination of a large number of digital materials and the use of information technology to engage in humanities research. Literature not only reflects the culture or political power relationship at the time of writing but also implies the thought of ideal life, so the discourse of the work itself is the source of power. Through the establishment of a digital archive system, advanced requirements for material analysis and visual observation are carried out (Lin, 2020). At the same time, it sorts out the context of specific collection materials in a systematic way and provides multiple clues to users' awareness of innovative issues. Take the theme of life stories during the martial law in Taiwan as an example, which guides the application of digital resources and tool platform construction from humanities and cross-domain, technologies and methods. In order to collect extensive background information on the subject and understand Taiwan’s traumatic history, I refer to oral history or biographies, and the National Museum of Human Rights related to the oral history of political suffering documentaries. Through reading, I access the memory and atmosphere of Taiwan's white horror period, and understand the experience and suffering of victims and relatives and friends, and the stories of how to go through the long night and start a new life again.

The database provides researchers with abundant materials. The value is not only a collection of data, but also relevant research-assisted system tools, through which researchers can find materials that meet their needs more easily and then facilitate the discovery of new topics. Digital collection technology preserves Taiwan’s precious documents and helps scholars conduct multi-faceted qualitative or quantitative research. The classification of this technology and archives will help promote the re-memory project of Taiwan’s culture, enable multiple retrieval and dissemination, and enhance the depth and breadth of research.

Application of Geographic Information System

The link between geographic information and humanities research focuses on collecting maps and texts objectively, historically, and scientifically [23,25]. The application of the map information system is an aspect that requires urgent consideration in deepening the related research. In the age of advanced information technology, geographic information system has become an influential media. The analysis of spatial information stimulates humanities researchers to expand the cross-domain vision and provide references for in-depth research. This article collects information about Taiwan's martial law period and combines it with GIS to reproduce the memory of victims and their families as well as the atmosphere of Taiwan's white terror period.

I use programming for generating maps and inputting the data of the victims' life stories, and combining the DocuSky digital humanities academic research platform "GIS and Visualization" and "DocuSky Geographic Information Tool" to draw, using the "reference layer" function of drawing lines and direction of the arrow to present the visualization of the "text layer". From the research materials and external background information provided by the database, we carefully sort out the time and space, and thematic context, draw the life story map of Taiwan during the martial law period, as well as the human rights sightseeing map of Taipei.

The British scholar Raymond Williams puts forward the essence of Structures of Feeling as: "Not only the common ground of a group of writers but also the common ground with all other writers in a special historical situation", he believes that "emotional structure" refers to the correspondence of the structure as the expression of the specific group in society [26]. In order to emphasize the meaning and value of certain things after personal experience or feeling, and the relationship between these meanings and values, he does not take "worldview" or "ideology", but chooses to discuss the changes of the times with terms of emotion or Affective Elements. The characteristic of the concept of emotional structure is to emphasize the individual's feelings and experience of the times and surrounding environment in society. It not only refers to the social structure but also emphasizes a certain "psychological structure" corresponding to the social structure. Individuals are not alone in the world, but in a group that shares a common historical and cultural experience [11,27]. The perception structure is a social structure that exists among the individual and the collective and is a common basis for cognition or communication. Although it can be explored from the life course of an individual, what it wants to show is not just the particularity of the individual, but reflects and connects with the age and community in which the individual lives [28]. The emotional structure emphasizes those members of certain culture must have a unique experience of their lifestyle, and this experience is irreplaceable [16]. Due to historical or geographical reasons, people who are outside this culture and do not have this experience can only obtain an incomplete or abstract understanding of this culture.

By collecting data on Taiwan's White Terror period and combining it with a geographic information system (GIS), the memory and atmosphere of Taiwan's White Terror period at that time were reproduced. By introducing the use of databases and the implementation of spatial information, it is possible to recreate and intervene in new interpretations of life stories in Taiwan's White Terror period. Combined with DocuGIS digital humanities and spatial information technology, combined with the cross-domain application of spatial information, such as the spatial information technology of the Docusky digital humanities academic research platform, GIS and visual tools are used to draw the life story map of Taiwan's White Terror period.

Results

There are many Taiwan human rights works of literature in the "White Horror Literature Catalog Database", recreating the personal experiences of people involved in many events, or thefeelings of their relatives and friends during the White Terror period. DocuSky provides personalized digital humanities research collaboration, from the collection of research materials in Walking through the Long Night, the establishment of a digital database, text organizing and marking, exploring and analyzing, and the application of visualization tools such as time and space information (Historical Sites of Injustice, 2022) [29]. Historical Sites of Injustice concern the collective societal trauma caused by the state’s past use of violence on individuals, and such sites can be found all over Taiwan. The National Human Rights Museum engaged in the task of taking stock, collecting, and sorting through the 41 Historical Sites of Injustice and commissioned the establishment of the “Database of Historical Sites of Injustice.” [30] The Taiwan Transitional Justice Database organizes political cases during the authoritarian period. Based on the names of the "recipients", it integrates the compensation business data and the political files collected by the National Development Commission Archives Administration. Through the application of the database, the history of human rights persecution is restored (cited in National human rights museum, 2022) [31].

This article uses the "White Horror Literature Catalog Database", "Historical Sites of Injustice Database", and "Taiwan Transformation Justice Database" to inquire about human rights-related persons, eras, and locations in Taiwan and sort them into Table 1.

Table 1: Place of Imprisonment during martial law period.


Sufferer

(Title DocMeta)

Imprisonment (doctype)

East longitude (X)

North latitude (Y)

Hu, Tzu-Tan

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Wang, Wen-Ching

Taiyuan Skill Training Institute

121.277004

23.01522

Tsai, Kun-Lin

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Chou, Hsien-Nung

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Kuo, Chen-Chun

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

Wu, Chung-Ling

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Taiyuan Skill Training Institute

121.277004

23.01522

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Tsai, Kuan-Yu

Taiyuan Skill Training Institut

121.277004

23.01522

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Chen, Shih-Chien

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Taiyuan Skill Training Institut

121.277004

23.01522

Huang, Wen-Kung

Security Office,

121.51083

25.037198

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.508348

25.040937

Shen, Yuan-Chang

Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau,

121.50138

25.044599

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Liu, Yao-Ting

Security Office,

121.51083

25.037198

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.508348

25.040937

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Chen, Hsien-Tsung

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Chen, Hsien-Fu

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Chen, Hsien-Te

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Wu, Ta-Lu

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Mao, Fu-Cheng

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Lu, Sha-Tang

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Taiwan Province Production Education Laboratory

 

 

 

121.461671

24.979608

Yen, Chi-Ming

Taiyuan Skill Training Institut

121.277004

23.01522

Tsai, Tsai-Yuan

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.520682

25.044313

Liu, Chia-Chin

Taiyuan Skill Training Institut

121.277004

23.01522

 

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

Hu, Hsin-Lin

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Tsai, Ping-Hung

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Gendarmerie Regiment

121.508348

25.040937

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Chiang, Han-Chin

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

Yang, Te-Tsung

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Yen, Ta-Shu

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Taiwan Province Production Education

Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

Chiu, Hsing-Sheng

Security Office,

121.51083

25.037198

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.508348

25.040937

 

Lin, Wei-Hsien

Security Office Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Chen, Chih-Hsiung

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

 

Gendarmerie 8th Regiment

121.508348

25.040937

Chien, Wan-Kun

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

Wu, Shui-Teng

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Wu, I-Min

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Yang, Tien-Lang

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Liu, Chen-Tan

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Teng, Po-Chen

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

 

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

Lin, Chieh-Kang

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

Lin, Chiu-Hsiang

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

 

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

 

Taipei Prison

121.524378

25.033091

Huang, Chi-Nan

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

 

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

 

Yang, Huan

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Military Intelligence Bureau

121.511251

25.064588

Liu, Chih-Hao

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

Shih, Ming-Te

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

 

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Lu, Kuo-Min

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

 

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

Wu, Ping-Kun

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Cheng, Ching- Lung

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Chang, Tse-Chou

Detention Center of the Military Law

121.52113

25.044261

 

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison

Command

121.51083

25.037198

Yang, Kuo-Yu

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

Hsu, Kuei-Piao

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Liu, Hsiu-Ming

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

 

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Chang, Fo-Shu

Taiwan Province Production Education

Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

 

Taiwan Garrison Command

121.52113

25.044261

Chen, Chin-Sheng

Green Island Correctional Prison

121.498664

22.674859

 

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.461671

24.979608

 

Chen, Shen-Ching

Taiwan Garrison CommandGreen Island Correctional Prison

121.52113

25.044261

 

Taiwan Renai Educational Laboratory

121.498664

22.674859

Lan, Ming-Ku

Gendarmerie 8th Regiment

121.508348

25.040937

Chang, A-Tung

New Life Correction Center

121.496261

22.675176

 

Hsu, Tai-Te

Security Office, Taiwan Garrison Command

121.51083

25.037198

 

Xindian Military Prison

121.523578

24.957391

Chen, Wu-Chen

Detention Center of the Military

120.279788

22.684153

 

TaiyuBureaull Training Institute

121.277004

23.01522

Figure 1: The most frequented spaces forced to confess crimes.

Figure 1 shows Taiwan Garrison Protection and Security Bureau, National Defense Department Secrets Protection bureau, and Justice Department Investigation Bureau were the most frequented spaces where the victims were not treated in a human way and were forced to confess their crimes, thus causing their most serious trauma.

The space involved in the series "Walking Through the Night: The Collection of White Horror Sufferings" published by the Cited in National human rights museum, alongwith special experiences, actually creates a historical context meaning.

According tothe nature of the content, the manuscript is divided into a "personal experience" section written by the victim himself or by their verbal record; a "remembrance" section writtenby the victim's family or by a verbal record, and a "Profile" section is the life stories of the victims written from a third-party perspective. Reading this collection from various angles and understanding the series of suffering experienced by the victims will help deepen the construction of Taiwan's traumatic history.

In recent years, the National Human Rights Museum has extensively collected materials related to human rights topics and published oral histories or biographies, and documentaries about the oral history of political suffering. After listening to the personal experiences of victims in the White Terror period, I have further understood the victims’ living conditions and figured out the significance of their life story. Mr. Chen Menghe, a victim of white terror, once put forward a wise concept: "To rebuild the erased history, we must first build up the space. With space, the story can be filled in and interpreted, and history can be closer to the truth." Thinking and paying attention to the atmosphere of the times to understand Taiwan's white terror period, and re-giving the text its meaning, I make good use of the "Injustice Site Database", "Taiwan Transformation Justice Database" and so on. And I combine and apply human rights information with DocuSky, from Metadata editing and design, Excel spreadsheet text conversion tool, DocuGIS to human rights-themed tourism.

The digitization of Taiwan literature and history has accumulated considerable results including various databases such as the "White Horror Literature Catalog Database", "Historical Sites of Injustice Database", and "Taiwan Transformation Justice Database". White Terror Literature mostly belongs to genres such as prose and oral history. The spatial narrative of unrighteous ruins in the text reproduces the absurdity of many events and reproduces historical events and physical and mental states. In order to show the life trajectory of the victims of the White Horror, I take the two victims as examples, and DocuGIS is applied to draw a life story map, shown in Figures 2-3:

Figure 2: Lin Jiegang's life trajectory.

Figure 2 is drawn with the information provided in "My White Life Journey". Lin Jiegang was born in Hsinchu County in 1927. He was arrested and imprisoned for keeping a magazine left by his classmates in early 1950. He was accused of being involved in the "Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League Case" and sentenced to 15 years in prison and deprived of legal rights for 10 years. He was detained in the Military Law Department and Green Island and was released in 1965. After his release, his family moved to Zhubei to start a new life (Cited in National human rights museum, 2017).

Figure 3: Chou Hsien-nung's life trajectory.

Figure 3 is based on the information provided in "The Self-Report of a Political Victim of a High School Student". Born in 1933, Chou Hsien-nung was from Hsinchu. He was arrested when he was a second-grader at Hsinchu Junior High School. In connection with the "Socialist Youth League Li Zisong, Fu Buliang and other cases", Zhou Xiannong was sentenced to only seven years for being under the age of 18. He was sent to Xindian Military Prison first and then to Ludao. Because of his unwillingness to snitch, he was sent to Liuqiu Island for training at the end of his sentence, where he was imprisoned for more than one year and five months. After his release, he first worked in a textile company for more than five years, then went to Shaw Brothers Film Company, and finally co-founded "Taiwan Mingban Company" with his friends until his retirement (Cited in National human rights museum, 2017). What is the purpose of writing for Zhou Xiannong? He said, “Let me re-write the stories of my various experiences of suffering so that more young people can experience another kind of life and self-encouragement as a reference.” (Cited in National human rights museum, 2017).

Discussion and Conclusion

This paper applies the interdisciplinary integration of spatial information is used to build spatiotemporal data on a digital humanities research platform, using geographic information system tools to present the visualization of textual layers.The space involved in the series "Walking Through the Night: The Collection of White Horror Sufferings", along with special experiences, actually creates a historical context meaning. As table 1 display most of the place of imprisonment during martial law period is in Taipei. Moreover, figure 1 shows Taipei is the most frequented spaces where the victims were not treated in a human way and were forced to confess their crimes. Lin Jiegang and Chou Hsien-nung are from Hsinchu, and they have been interrogated and detained in various places in Taipei, and then imprisoned in Green Island. From their hometown to Taipei, and finally, to Green Island, this is the common life path of some victims of the White Terror. Figure 2-3 shows that the authorities made the victims displaced. Due to the unbearable torture, they could not help but confess their crimes and thus were put in jail. Whether in questioning or behind bars, these spaces made the victims displaced and far away from their hometown, which resulted in life-long inerasable life trauma.

Taiwan has gradually opened up from oppression since the lifting of the martial law. Traveling is one of the ways to understand oneself and the world. Considering that guided tours orderly important scenes at different stages will be better for general tourists, the human rights sightseeing map of Taipei has displayed the process from interrogated, passing imprisoned, imprisoned to transfer. In order to experience the emotional structure of Taiwan during the martial law, this articleplans a human rights tour in Taipei: from the Security Department Detention Center ofthe Security Command (Higashi Honganji Temple), passing the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of the Interior Taiwan Garrison Command, Taipei Military Prison, Ministry of National Defense, to Huashan Cargo Terminal, draw a human rights sightseeing mapof Taipei (Figure 4).

Figure 4: human rights sightseeing map of Taipei.

Figure 4 shows the route is designed to cover various types of unjust cases based on the political and secret institutions in Taipei’s West District, involving prisoners undergoing interrogation, torturing, extorting a confession, imprisonment, detention, transferring, and other important scenes at different stages, in order to deeply understand how political prisoners are interrogated, sentenced, and imprisoned. Taipei West District route undertook the urban planning and urban development of Qing Dynasty and Japanese Occupation. After the war, it was still a centralized place for government agencies, involving state command and customization, such as the Taiwan Garrison Command and the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior. The Security Department Detention Center of the Security Command, located in the former HigashiHonganji Temple, was described as an "Asura Purgatory" where the prisoners were executed secretly in the early 1950s. Investigation Bureau, Ministry of The Interior, engaged in political surveillance work, including intelligence collection, protecting secrets and fighting spies, and seizing and questioning prisoners. Taiwan Garrison Command under the national defense ministry was not established based on the law buton executive orders. This institution was so powerful that it controlled the fate of people.Taipei Military Prison, Ministry of National Defense was the prison that imprisoned and questioned political prisoners during the martial law period. It was rebuilt from an army warehouse during the Japanese occupation period and became the first military prison in Taiwan after the war (Cited in National human rights museum, 2017). Huashan Cargo Terminal was the largest freight station next to Taipei Railway Station during the Japanese Occupation. Extending eastward, there were many industrial facilities that embraced the historical value of witnessing the texture of urban development. Once it was an important transportation node for political victims sentenced during the martial law period and thus sent to GreenIsland. Now there are art exhibitions and performances often held here [(Cited in National human rights museum, 2017)]. By inspecting and visiting these unrighteous ruins during the martial law period, I understand the historical events and life stories that took place there and reflect on how people in today’s society reinterpret the meaning of these unrighteous sites and the development of human rights in Taiwan.

Currently, some authorities of cities in the world are thinking about a sustainable model of urban tourism development in the future, and the tourism industry is planning a sustainable plan for urban tourism [32-35]. Stories of life-related to human rights in Taiwan are detailed and impressive with demonstrable suggestions that have broad implications for human right value studies elsewhere. Planning the human rights road in Taipei, not only fills the gaps in history but also promotes the possibility of world human rights tourism. Looking back at tourism and cultural tour activities around the world, historical attractions are often the main content; however, the theme of human light right travel activities can highlight the historical meaning more and reveal the universal value [36,37]. Recently, combining digital humanities, and using cloud mapping and geographic information systems, there are themed cultural tours developed [36]. Cycling is convenient in Taipei. The You Bike rental station network enables commuters and tourists to rent a bike from one station and return it at any other station. Rental payments can be made via the city's stored value EasyCard, major credit cards, and mobile phones [39,40]. It is recommended to promote human rights-themed sightseeing in Taipei by walking, taking the Mass Rapid Transit, or riding the You Bike.

Reading is the result of the positive interaction between the reader and the text, and it is the process of text decoding and constructing meaning. The reader can not only imagine the atmosphere of the times but also feel the narratives of these life experiences during the martial law period. Because the life stories interacting with people, convey the ethical dimension and yearning for an ideal life [41,42]. This type of memory is organized into narratives with words or images, and in this new narrative, we obtain new ways of thinking about the past, as well as ways of processing and facing the future [43,44,17]. From the story, I reflect on the scars caused by the past history, so that future generations can cherish and defend the achievements of human rights today which are not easy to come by.

In-depth tourism shapes the general travel style to more small groups or self- travel. They can look around the historical site or visit the museum. Before they visit they can see the introduction of a life story film from thewebsite in advance. Many cities worldwide looked for a way to design and cultivate sustainable tourism development. Human rights anthologies around the world contain memories in specific time and space contexts. It is recommended that governments and private organizations should encourage more publications of human rights life stories, or select some of the works to be filmed into videos, and disseminate them through public media or special websites and databases [45]. These narratives should be kept in libraries, transformed into memorialday performing arts, or stepped into our daily life so that tourists can better understand the development context of human rights against any totalitarian regime in the world [46-48]. At the same time, we can combine the life stories texts and the landscape in the guide during the sightseeing tour, which preserves individual and collective memories and helps to enhance the human rights concept. Also, it provides a reference for the promotion of urban human rights tour-related industries in cities all over the world. Applying the life story map to human right research has the value of deepening spatial thinking. The applications of the Geographic Information System will deepen cross-domain academic research and broaden social influence.

Data Availability Statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.

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