No Such Person | Reflections on Viewing and Guiding the Seventh-Anniversary Exhibition on the March 24 Executive Yuan Violent Eviction

I came to JRF because my school requires an internship. I was only a sophomore and knew almost nothing about this history. When it happened, I had been in junior high school. I remember the anti-CSSTA protests dominating the news and seeing photographs of people sitting on the floor of the Executive Yuan, but at the time I thought, "This probably has nothing to do with me," and paid little attention. Later, I was assigned to help staff this exhibition and explain it to visitors. That was when I began learning what had happened-although even then I knew only the broad outline, nothing like the people who had lived through it.

I remember one visitor who had been directly involved. She was old enough that I naturally called her Grandma. She told us interns what the scene had actually been like. Her description was so vivid that I could almost see it, and I could feel the fear and uncertainty she had experienced. Listening to her, I realized that what I knew was a single leaf while she was showing me an entire forest. The consequences of that night went far beyond visible injuries. There were wounds no one could see, along with psychological trauma and pressure that continued afterward.

At the end, Grandma thanked the interns and JRF for organizing the exhibition. But really, I should have been thanking her. She helped me understand that something like this could happen in the place where I grew up-that I was not living in some peaceful utopia.

While staffing the exhibition, I met many of the attorneys who had been involved. Some came to see the exhibition and others spoke at lectures. Their accounts were vivid and real. People who had been directly affected were also invited to tell visitors what happened. Speaking publicly may have meant reopening wounds, but as time passes and some things are gradually confronted, I hope everyone can move forward together toward something better.

I also spent time looking at photographs and footage of the eviction. I still found it difficult to accept-and difficult to believe-that it had happened. But because it did happen, it has to be faced. Seven years later, I imagine the psychological wounds of those involved can never fully disappear. I hope this exhibition helps people remember, or at least gives them a clearer understanding, of what happened on March 18 and March 24, 2014. I am also grateful to those who stepped forward. Their actions made it possible for later generations like ours to live with greater security, and brought questions such as civil disobedience, state violence, and police eviction into public discussion through real experience rather than only distant examples in books or other countries.