Chiang Kai-Shek Day Date: October 31
Taiwan celebrates Chiang Kai-Shek Day as a public holiday.
On October 31, Taiwan celebrates Chiang Kai-Shek Day. The birth anniversary of Chiang Kai-Shek is celebrated as a national holiday in Taiwan.
History of Chiang Kai-Shek Day in Taiwan
On October 31, 1887, in Chekiang province, China, Chiang Kai-Shek was born. He was the leader of the Nationalist government of China from 1928 to 1949. As a young man training in the Japanese military, Chiang was attracted to the ideals of republicanism. After completing his military training, he returned to China and fought against the dying Manchu imperial dynasty. He eventually joined forces with Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang. During this association both Chiang and Sun became enamored of Soviet communism and even reorganized the Nationalist Party based on a Soviet model. After Sun’s death, Chinese communists, who had been admitted into the party, came into conflict with strict republicans. Chiang’s political shrewdness came to the fore at this point, as he stemmed the influence of the communists in his party while keeping Moscow as an ally.
When the Japanese Army invaded China in 1937, Chiang lost control of the coastal regions and was forced to move his capital from Nanking to Chungking. In an effort to beat the Japanese, he agreed to collaborate with Mao Zedong and his communist army. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Chiang and his government received considerable financial support from the United States. Eventually Chiang led a coup that expelled the communists, feeling that they were too strong a challenge to his own control of the party. In 1949, he lost his nation to communism. Chiang removed himself to Taiwan, where he set up a relatively benign dictatorship—an alternate China.
Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-Shek Day Traditions, Customs and Activities
Taiwan celebrates Chiang Kai-Shek’s birthday as a national holiday. All the government offices and schools remain closed on this day, and celebrations are held throughout the country to honor Chiang Kai-Shek.
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