Su Beng

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Su Beng" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Su Beng (9 November 1918 – 20 September 2019; Chinese: 史明; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sú-bêng; pinyin: Shǐ Míng; Wade–Giles: Shih³ Ming²), born Lîm Tiâu-hui (林朝暉; Lîm Tiâu-hui; Lín Cháohuī; Lin² Ch'ao²-Hui¹) and later known as Si Tiâu-hui (施朝暉; Shī Cháohuī; Shih¹ Ch'ao²-Hui¹; Si Tiâu-hui), was a Taiwanese revolutionary, historian and political activist of Taiwan independence movement.

Early years and exile

Su Beng was born on 9 November 1918 in Shirin Town, Taihoku Chō, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Shilin District of Taipei). His birth name was Lîm Tiâu-hui (林朝暉; Lín Cháohuī; Lin² Ch'ao²-hui¹; Lîm Tiâu-hui). Aged 11, he began using his maternal surname Shih (施; Shī; Si).^[1]

After graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo with a degree in political science and economics in 1942, he left for China where he worked undercover with the Chinese Communist Party (1942–1949). For years, he averted the Chinese Communists’ bids for him to join the party. Finally he escaped from Qingdao to Taiwan, just as the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang soldiers were retreating to Taiwan.^[1] Having returned to Taiwan for about a year, he established the Taiwan Independence Armed Corps in 1950 which plotted for the assassination of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. When the Taiwan Independence Armed Corps' stash of weapons were discovered hidden on land owned by Su Beng's grandmother in 1951, Su Beng was forced to go into hiding.^{[citation needed]}

After several months on the run, he finally fled to Japan in May 1952 by stowing away in a boat exporting bananas. He served four months of detention for attempting to illegally enter the country, but when the Kuomintang reported him missing and wanted for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese government granted him

In 1993, Su Beng returned to reside in Taipei, Taiwan. The following year, April 1994, he began the Taiwan Independence Action motorcade, which he conceived as a way to raise the Taiwanese people’s consciousness. The motorcade makes its rounds from Taipei county to Taipei city, every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, delivering messages calling for Taiwan’s independence and the normalization of Taiwan as a country.^[citation needed]

Labeled a radical, violent militant and communist, he was dubbed the "Che Guevara of Taiwan". Several tall tales existed about Su Beng’s controversial life decisions, one of which included electing to have a vasectomy when he was in his twenties while working undercover for the CCP in China.^{[citation needed]}

Su died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure at Taipei Medical University Hospital on 20 September 2019, aged 100.^[1][4][5][6]

Pen name

He first used Su Beng (史明, literally "to clearly understand the history") as his pen name for Taiwanese’s 400 Year History in 1962. In choosing his pen name, he wanted to express his motivation for writing the book. Su Beng believed that once the Taiwanese people understand their unique history, they will be able to know who they are, what they want for themselves and their nation. The two characters which make up his name mean "history" and "clear", respectively. Taken together, they may be interpreted as “history clearly”, as in “to know history clearly.”^[7]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Su Beng.

• Website About Su Beng maintained and written by his English Biographer Felicia Lin
• Su Beng's personal (Chinese language) website