The Extraordinary Life of Huang Chin-tao (Part 2) – S6-E3
Huang Chin-tao (黃金島) was never a household name, but his life story is the story of modern Taiwan. In this concluding episode, we follow Huang from the 2.28 uprising in 1947 as he joins a resistance group led by a rare combination: a Taiwanese woman communist guerrilla commander, Xie Xuehong, whom we've dubbed Agent "Red Snow." After fighting bravely but losing the Battle of Wuniulan Bridge in Nantou, Huang becomes a fugitive and then spends more than two decades in Taiwan’s prisons. There is, however, finally some happiness: a few years after being released, he found love and became a political activist in what would become Taiwan's first real opposition party. For this tale of resistance, survival, and a regular man’s refusal to be broken by history, we drew on Anna Beth Keim’s excellent biography "Heaven Does Not Block All Roads."
Cover: Huang Chin-tao (黃金島) at commemorations in Nantou for victims of the 228 Incident (date unknown). Image via Liberty Times and was featured in his 2019 obituary.
Below: The cover of Anna Beth Keim’s excellent biography Heaven Does Not Block All Roads.
Below: Taiwanese woman communist guerrilla commander, Xie Xuehong, (1901-1970) whom we've dubbed Agent "Red Snow." In the second picture she is shown standing behind Mao Zedong as Mao prepares to announced the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Despite a lifetime of dedication to the communist cause, as Wiki explains, "[She suffered] expulsion from the CCP and removal from the National People's Congress, all in 1958. Xie died in Beijing in 1970, while facing criticism during the Cultural Revolution. She was posthumously rehabilitated by the Chinese Communist Party in 1986."
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