Wild Lily student movement - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

's Wild Lily student movement or March student movement was a six-day student demonstration in 1990 for democratic reform

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

. The sit-in

Sit-in

A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...

at Memorial Square

Memorial square

A memorial square is an intersection dedicated in memory of someone, usually someone who was killed in a war. It is not the same as a town square. While the name of a town square is used to describe where something is located, the name of a memorial square is not used in the same manner.- External...

in Taipei, initiated by a few students from National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...

, soon drew the participation of over 300,000 demonstrators. The Wild Lily demonstrators sought direct elections of Taiwan's president and vice president and new elections for all representatives.

The demonstration lasted from March 16 to March 22, 1990, coinciding with the election of Lee Teng-Hui

Lee Teng-hui

Lee Teng-hui is a politician of the Republic of China . He was the 7th, 8th, and 9th-term President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang from 1988 to 2000. He presided over major advancements in democratic reforms including his own re-election which marked the first direct...

on March 21 to a six-year term as Taiwan's president — an election in which only 671 officials voted, one party was recognized, and one candidate ran. This presidential appointment process, characteristic of one-party rule under the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

and Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

, was by 1990 widely seen as antiquated.

Protesters wore white Formosa

Formosa

Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...

n lilies and created giant replicas of the flower as a symbol of democracy. Their adoption of the flower as an icon of freedom evoked a long native tradition. Yang Yung-ming, a professor of political science at National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University

, described it to the Taiwan Review
Taiwan Review
is a general-interest English-language monthly published by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China . Its purpose is to inform English readers around the world of what takes place in the island-nation.-History :...

in 2003:

"For years, Taiwanese poets have employed this flower as a symbol of grace and resilience. The aboriginal poet Lin Yi-te, for example, often used it to symbolize the Taiwanese indigenous peoples' primitive purity of spirit, and used the flower's decline to dramatize the desolation and tragedy of their decline. It was Taiwanese literature's use of this wild lily as a metaphor of simplicity and fortitude that inspired its use by those in the student democracy movement."

On the first day of his new term, March 21, Lee Teng-Hui

Lee Teng-hui

welcomed fifty students to the Presidential Building

Presidential Building (Taiwan)

The Presidential Office Building houses the Office of the President of the Republic of China. The building, located in the Zhongzheng District in the national capital of Taipei, Republic of China, was designed by architect Uheiji Nagano during the period of Japanese rule of Taiwan . The structure...

. He expressed his support of the students' goals and promised full democracy for Taiwan beginning with reforms to be initiated that summer.

The Wild Lily student movement is widely regarded as a turning point in Taiwan's transition to democracy. Six years later Lee became Taiwan's first popularly elected leader, taking 54% of the vote in an election where over 95% of eligible voters participated. Democracy supporters continue to gather at Memorial Square every March 21 to commemorate the event. Officials affiliated with the Taiwan Solidarity Union

Taiwan Solidarity Union

The Taiwan Solidarity Union is a political party in the Republic of China which advocates Taiwan independence. It was officially founded on July 24, 2001 and is considered part of the Pan-Green Coalition. Unlike the Democratic Progressive Party, its larger companion party in the Pan-Green...

have advocated the movement of Taiwan's Youth Day to March 21 in recognition of the students' achievement.

President Chen Shui-Bian

Chen Shui-bian

Chen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...

, on the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of student democracy protests in China's Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...

, noted that the Wild Lily student movement took place only one year after the ill-fated student demonstrations in Beijing. He noted the contrast in the way the governments responded. "The most memorable impression of the Tiananmen incident of June 4th is that of that small, thin person holding up a line of tanks, which was a heroic and disturbing impression," he said. "The March Study Movement, in pressing for the establishment of a national affairs conference, changing the way the Legislative Yuan

Legislative Yuan

The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China .The Legislative Yuan is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, which follows Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People...

and the National Assembly

National Assembly of the Republic of China

The National Assembly of the Republic of China refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the Republic of China. The National Assembly was originally founded in 1913 as the first legislature in Chinese history, but was disbanded less than a year later as President Yuan Shikai assumed...

are elected and a consensus on realizing the direct election of the president, also set a timetable for [further] reform."

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