Today was centered around Taiwan’s historical, philosophical, and political identity. We started our day with a visit to a Confucian temple, which offered a completely different atmosphere from the Buddhist sites we’ve been seeing. The environment was clean, structured, quiet, and formal. You could immediately sense the difference in energy it wasn’t about worship or spiritual transcendence, but about thought, ethics, and personal discipline.
Confucianism isn’t really a religion in the traditional sense, but more like a philosophical framework. The design of the temple reflected that. It wasn’t overly ornate. Everything had a purpose and symmetry. No incense, no loud colors just quiet, orderly space to reflect and learn. There were tablets with Confucian teachings inscribed, and displays about his influence on Chinese and Taiwanese governance and education.
From there, we moved on to the National Taiwan Museum, focusing specifically on the exhibit about the February 28 Incident (also called the 2/28 Incident). This was a heavy but necessary part of the trip. I had heard about the incident before how in 1947, a public uprising against the Kuomintang government led to violent suppression, arrests, and deaths but seeing the timeline, testimonies, and artifacts in person weight and made me realize how tragic it really was which was detail that reading about it doesn’t provide.
What was most shocking to me was the long-term impact of this event. It wasn’t just a moment of political violence it left deep scars on Taiwan’s society and fueled the democratic movements that followed in the decades after. I became quickly more aware of how Taiwan’s current political environment has been shaped by that trauma, and how memory and justice are still unfolding.
After the museum, we passed by the Presidential Office Building, which we only saw from the outside. The building itself is large, very formal, and carries a lot of symbolic power. There were two marshals standing out front some on guard, some interacting with tourists. You could feel the tension between openness and control, especially considering the museum we had just come from. It made for a strange contrast being at the doorstep of current government authority right after learning about past abuses of power.
After that, we walked to the hotel. The mood was quieter than usual probably because the day was heavier than expected. There was a lot to think about. Between the Confucian temple and the 2/28 Museum, the theme of today seemed to be about how societies shape their values whether through important historical events.