Become a happy youth, become another pair of supporting hands

Written on February 8, 2020:

"You're only a freshman now, how did you come into contact with Lesheng? Why did you come to Lesheng again?" Li Tianpei, the former president of the Lesheng Self-Saving Association, asked me. In fact, I can’t answer why, I remember that I replied in Taiwanese, which is not very fluent, on the MRT: “I knew about Lesheng before, but only after I came to Taipei University last year, I came into contact with Lesheng. ”

Indeed, after coming to Taipei, I have been constantly exposed to new knowledge and new issues. I went to the place where the residents lived, and also went to the scene of the protest, from anti-nuclear to happy students. I remembered that on a certain night a few days before school started, I accidentally saw a few photos of Le Sheng on Facebook before going to bed. They were taken by Mu Qing, so I clicked through the album and read, "Meet 316", the album On the cover, a citizen of the Music Academy pressed a poster of "white thieves of the government, white demolition of music students" with his swollen hands. That night was the first time I cried because of this issue.

"Hey, don't forget your tears and anger. Tears are good, it proves that we are not sick." Mu Qing wrote in the caption of a photo. In fact, I didn't know the context of Le Sheng at that time, but I could feel from the photos that it was another incident in which the grandparents were oppressed, deceived, and treated unequally by the government.

Violent scene

The first time I actually came into contact with Lesheng was last month because the gate post was dismantled without everyone's knowledge. I held a press conference in front of the Wei and Welfare Department, and I was suddenly mobilized to help. To me, it was an amazing press conference, with plainclothes police standing in line, staring at everyone who passed by, and two rows of roadblocks blocking the door, so residents on scooters could only park in the front. On the slopes, even officials were present, and everyone responded to them in a very temporary situation and scolded them at the right time.

Xiu Peng led everyone to shout slogans. I couldn't understand the context and why they shouted slogans, but they still shouted loudly, as if they wanted to let the officials and reporters on the scene know how angry I was as an outsider. Even if you stand at the back and can't see what's going on in front of you, you can still perceive the situation at the scene from the official's response and the tone of Xiu Peng's speech - The Ministry of Health and Welfare has conducted long-term information that is not open and opaque, and does not accept the opinions of residents. In the case of the reconstruction plan, the inmates have repeatedly become rubber stamps. Even if the Ministry of Health and Welfare promised something verbally in this press conference, how much can they trust them?

Why do we need to pass information on the Internet and actually come to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to prepare for this press conference? And why do inmates with limited mobility need to take the MRT all the way to go out?

From an outsider’s perspective, the violence happened when our group of young people shouted and collided with each other. However, I think the violence existed in this group of government officials who appeared to be suave in suits. At the press conference, they lowered their stance to the inmates and spoke verbally. They promised a bunch of things they would do, but in fact they did half of it. The house was demolished seven or eight years ago, and the dream of rebuilding that they thought could be realized one day has also failed again and again.

We are not a mob behind the protest

After the action in front of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, I followed some Le Qing back to Le Sheng, and listened to them discuss their thoughts on the press conference, how to write a press release after the conference, and what their demands were. The next day, a more formal meeting was held together. The seniors shared what different roles should do at the press conference, and reviewed the situation of everyone on the scene from the content of the media reports and photos.

In the next three weeks, we held the entrance image design briefing session (what the hospital prevented us from doing), discussed the feasibility of the big platform plan with Mr. Liu Keqiang, the self-rescue meeting, the human rights meeting, and Le Qing also fixed Meet once a week. Every meeting is to discuss the latest actions of the hospital or contractors. Externally, we need to release information in the most efficient and visible way. Internally, we discuss how to respond to the current residents of the hospital. the situation encountered, and how to solve these problems.

In just one month, I have participated in many meetings of various sizes. The reason for the frequent meetings is because the residents are getting older day by day, and the problem of insufficient nursing care in the park cannot be waited for; , The contractor planning for the reconstruction of different hospital districts is still in progress. If you follow up irregularly and ask for information on your own initiative, you may end up waiting for a bad result, or even let them continue to execute in the way that was very bad in the past. We hope that in this process, we will continue to strive for the "basic" inmates to participate in redevelopment planning and information disclosure.

Whose business belongs to the reconstruction of Lesheng?

Every time he sees Auntie Lan, he always thanks everyone for their willingness to pay attention to this matter and to help them, saying that we have worked hard, and even seeing so many young students during the tour, he begins to thank them. Everyone, "No! You have worked hard!" "And this is also our business." Our student responded to him, but Aunt Lan said solemnly: "This is our business."

Whose business is this? What groups are concerned? Why do Lesheng residents feel that it is their own business? Some residents living on the side think that it is none of his business, and it is better to demolish so that the place can develop? But in the more than ten years of Lesheng's struggle, from 2004 to the present, not only Lesheng, but also Dapu, Nantie, Huaguang, Daguan, Kangleli... Is it just a case? Is it just a matter of their individual groups?

At this point, I remembered the question Timber Abbot asked me: "Why did you come to Lesheng?"

In the album "Meet 316", there is a photo of Le Qing reaching out to help Tim Pei who almost fell on the red brick floor, "This attitude is the attitude of the Lesheng Movement for eight years. We More, more, more, supporting hand."

The album meeting on March 16 is an action on December 13, 2012. Everyone will meet on the day of March 16 tomorrow to go to Kai Dao together. It happened to be Aunt Yueyin's birthday that day, and he made a wish to relocate the airport, backfill the earth, and rebuild Lesheng. It's been almost seven years, and everyone still hasn't been able to fulfill Auntie's birthday wish that year. However, it is the pair of newly added supporting hands who have been pushing the movement forward in the past 15 years.