A photo journey through 100 years of the ROC

This coming year, the Republic of China (ROC) will celebrate its centennial birthday with events being held in Taiwan and aboard. Founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1912 in China, the ROC government was forced to move to Taiwan following the Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists. The photographs below are a small sample of the traveling exhibition entitled Retracing Our Steps: A Photo Journey through 100 Years of the ROC, produced by the Taiwan’s Government Information Office. 
 
 Please join us for an exploration of the ROC’s development over the past century.

 

Officers are photographed at the ceremony for Taiwan’s retrocession to the ROC on Oct. 25, 1945, marking the surrender of Japanese forces in Taiwan at the end of World War II. (Courtesy of Academia Historica)

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) visits Taiwan on June 18, 1960, riding in a convertible with President Chiang Kai-shek (right) to downtown Taipei. This was an important period for ROC-U.S. relations. President Eisenhower is the only U.S. president to have visited the Republic of China. (Government Information Office)

During the 1960s and 1970s, the textile industry, benefiting from various government policies and promotional projects, was one of Taiwan’s key export industries. (Government Information Office)

Top: Skeletons of two hulking steamships in the shipyard of the then China Shipbuilding Corporation. The Ten Major Construction Projects, which included the founding of this large shipbuilding company, were carried out during the 1970s.

Bottom: Cars line up at the Yangmei Toll Station to watch the ceremony for the opening of National Highway No. 1 in 1978. (Government Information Office)

During an Oct. 7, 1986 interview with Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, President Chiang Ching-kuo (left) made a preliminary remark that martial law would be lifted. Chiang’s English secretary Ma Ying-jeou (center) later described this historic moment as “electric.” On the evening of July 14, 1987, the government officially announced the lifting of martial law. (Courtesy of Academia Historica)

The 228 Memorial Monument is unveiled at Taipei New Park on Feb. 28, 1996. The monument commemorates the 228 Incident in 1947, reminding people to forgive past mistakes, console those affected, and move ahead into the future. (Government Information Office)

Ma Ying-jeou (center) shakes hands with supporters after being elected president on March 22, 2008. Ma, the Kuomintang candidate, won with 58.45 percent of the vote. (Cheng Yuan-ching)

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