>TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Horror and history come to life for brave souls on tours of a Taipei graveyard, which highlight hard-to-find headstones of fallen heroes from a seldom discussed, and often grim time, in the island's past.
About 150 people, including university students and visiting scholars, have followed American-born assistant professor Linda Arrigo through thousands of 20th-century gravestones on a hill, behind Taipei's highriseriddled downtown.
"People in Taiwan really don't know the history," said Ms Arrigo, 59, who has lived on the island for 45 years.
"There are many tragedies in this history, and an instinct to run away or deny it. You have to go through a process of digesting it.
"Taiwanese, in general, are scared of graves," added Ms Arrigo, who teaches a class titled "Experiencing Taiwan Social History" at Taipei Medical University. Ethnic Chinese tend to avoid discussing death, but some hold elaborate rituals to honour the deceased in their families.
On her 90-minute bilingual tours which began in October last year, Ms Arrigo has led groups ranging from five to more than 20 people to see the ornate graves of Muslims who fled from China's communists to Taiwan, and the chipped, barely-marked headstones of 200 people who died in the "white terror" era.
In that period of the 1950s and 60s, Taiwan executed or incarcerated some 140,000 people suspected of advocating democracy, communism or the island's independence from China.
"I feel a tremendous sadness knowing that there were people executed and buried without their families," said Mr Timothy Fox, a former Chinese Culture University language instructor who went with five of his students on a grave tour.
Some tombs belong to historical figures such as Mr Chiang Wei-shui, who went to jail under Japanese colonialism but became a hero later for standing up for the Chinese identity.
Others belong to foreigners who were washed up in shipwrecks.
During the recent tour, the five students, all Taiwanese, kept quiet along the walk and did not take photos as they would do on normal tours.
But during the trip, the graveyard came alive, student Lauren Lee said.
"When you see history in books, the feeling isn't the same," said the first-year English student. "This tour is an opportunity that's hard to get." -- REUTERS
