Remembering Su Beng Taiwanese Revolutionary with Jiho Chang

4 min readNov 10, 2021

November 9th would be the 103rd the birthday of the late revolutionary, Taiwan independence activist, and historian Su Beng (史明), who passed away on September 20, 2019. Since I’ve been working on his English-language biography and I wanted to remember him on this day.

In this episode of Talking Taiwan, I spoke with Jiho Chang one of the co-authors of The Oral History of Su Beng (史明口述史), a three-volume book that he and others collaborated on while attending the National Taiwan University. In addition to talking about Su Beng’s legacy, Jiho shared some personal stories about Su Beng, and talked about Su Beng’s role in the Sunflower Movement.

At the end of the episode, I share some of my fondest memories of Su Beng.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

The public funeral/memorial that was organized for Su Beng on October
Su Beng’s lifelong commitment to the cause of Taiwan’s independence
The noodle shop that Su Beng opened in 1950s in Ikebukuro, Japan
The underground and afterhours activities that happened at the noodle shop
The third and fourth floors of the noodle shop is being converted into a museum
How Su Beng’s residence in New Taipei has been converted into a museum
Su Beng’s connection to Taiwan’s current president Tsai Ing-wen
How Jiho first heard of and met Su Beng
The 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis
The English language version of Su Beng’s book, Taiwan’s 400 Year History The Chinese language version of Su Beng’s book, 台彎人四百年史(The Taiwanese People’s 400 Years of History)
China’s Anti-secession Law
Su Beng’s sit-in to protest China’s Anti-secession Law in 2005
How Jiho joined Su Beng’s protest of China’s Anti-secession Law and got to know Su Beng
The parallels and comparison between Su Beng and Che Guevara
How Jiho, Lán Shì-bó / Nâ Sū-phok (藍士博) and others National Taiwan University students started interviewing Su Beng and wrote a three-volume book, The Oral History of Su Beng (史明口述史)
Su Beng’s hospitalization for kidney failure in Japan in 2009
Su Beng’s life in Japan as a student at Waseda University
Su Beng’s family background
Su Beng’s Japanese girlfriend/partner who he met while in China
Su Beng’s love of Kentucky Fried Chicken
Su Beng’s special relationship with his maternal grandmother
Su Beng’s role in the 2014 Sunflower Movement