Ma Commemorates Centennial of Luo Fu-Xing’s Martyrdom

 Ma Commemorates Centennial of Luo Fu-Xing’s Martyrdom

 Sources: All Taipei newspapers

March 4, 2014

On March 2, all walks of life in Dahu Township of Miaoli County held a memorial service to commemorate the centennial of the martyrdom of Luo Fu-xing (羅福星), who fought against the Japanese occupation but was executed by the Japanese colonial government on March 3, 1914. President Ma Ying-jeou personally attended the ceremony, paying homage to Luo Fu-xing and unveiling his portrait on the occasion. The President stated that the Republic of China (ROC) could only have been founded because so many young people were willing to shed blood and sacrifice themselves to save the nation. 

President Ma noted that Luo’s ancestral hometown was Guangdong Province and he was a member of Tongmenghui (同盟會，Chinese Revolutionary Alliance), founded and led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Luo participated in the Second Guangzhou Uprising against the Qing Dynasty in March 1911. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution in October 1911, Luo came to Taiwan to lead a revolution against the Japanese colonial rule. In 1913, he published a declaration of revolution to the people of Taiwan in an attempt to hold a large scale uprising against the Japanese occupation. However, he caught the attention of the Japanese colonial government, which subsequently issued an arrest warrant. Luo was arrested in Tamshui in northern Taiwan in December 1913, in what is known as the “Miaoli Incident.” Luo was hanged on March 3, 1914 at the age of just 29. 

The remains of Luo and other martyrs of the Miaoli Incident were enshrined in a martyrdom tower behind the Temple to the Patriots in Dahu Township. President Ma stated that Luo was not merely a martyr of Miaoli or Taiwan, but also a martyr of the Republic of China. 

President Ma noted that Dr. Sun Yat-sen set up the Revive China Society (興中會) because of the defeat of the Qing Dynasty China in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, and launched the First Guangzhou Uprising in 1895 because the Qing Dynasty agreed to cede Taiwan to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, stressing that these two historical events clearly indicated the close relations between Taiwan and the ROC. He went on to say that the ROC went on to eventually defeat Japan and celebrate Taiwan's retrocession in 1945 because of the tremendous contributions made by so many revolutionaries.

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