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December 25th. A special day celebrating the birth of... the Constitution of the Republic of China. Once a holiday that rather conveniently overlapped with Christmas, today you don't get the day off in Taiwan. So, to relieve the pain of being forced to work on Christm... um... Constitution Day, John and Eryk bring you some festive cheer by recounting the history of the ROC Constitution, examining each and every amendment, and reading it in the original Mandarin. Just kidding. John gives Eryk an ROC citizenship test. Will Eryk have what it takes to become an ROCian? Will he know the answer to important naturalization questions such as, “Is it permissible to open an emergency door of an airplane in flight?” Find out in this holiday special from Formosa Files.
Cover: A combo of Xmas images with the first page of the original copy of the Constitution of the Republic of China.
Taiwan (the Republic of China) is currently governed by the 7th revision of the ROC Constitution, which went into effect on June 10th, 2005.
Suggested fun holiday reading: The Constitution of the Republic of China - in English!
First page of the original ROC Constitution.
Via Wikimedia Commons:
"The constitution traces its origins to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The impending outbreak of the Chinese Civil War pressured Chiang Kai-shek into enacting a democratic Constitution that would end KMT one-party rule. The KMT and the CCP jointly held a convention at which both parties presented views, and many of the Communist Party's demands were met, including the popular election of the Legislative Yuan. Professor John Ching Hsiung Wu, Vice-chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission, was the principal author of the text."
Below:
1. The original Constitutional Drafting Committee of the newly founded Republic of China, photographed on the steps of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, where the draft was completed in 1913.
2. The Political Consultative Conference in Chongqing in 1946, where the latest draft of the Constitution was discussed by political parties, including the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party.
3. Wu Zhihui, chairman of the National Constituent Assembly, hands the ratified constitution to Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Nationalist Government. The fifth ROC constitution officially went into effect on December 25th, 1947.
Below: The area claimed by the ROC in 1947.
Dark green: areas the ROC actually had degrees of control over.
Light green: areas claimed as ROC territory, but not controlled by the ROC in 1947.
Click HERE for a list of public holidays in Taiwan.
Via The Taiwan News: Best things to do in Taiwan over Christmas (2017)
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
