Su Beng (9 November 1918 – 20 September 2019; ), born Lîm Tiâu-hui () and later known as Si Tiâu-hui (), was a Taiwanese revolutionary, historian and political activist of

Taiwan independence movement The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations. Into the 21st- ...

. Su Beng was a representative Taiwanese

left-wing nationalist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing poli ...

in the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

sense and is considered the '

Taiwan independence Left The Taiwan independence Left () are the leftist political and economic ideologies of the participants in the radical Taiwan independence movement, which favored left-wing nationalism, anti-imperialism, socialism (mainly social democracy or Trotsky ...

'; he opposed

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

Chinese imperialism Chinese imperialism refers to the expansion of political, economic, and cultural influence beyond the boundaries of the People's Republic of China. Depending on the commentator, it has also been used to refer to its artificial islands in the S ...

Early years and exile

Su Beng was born on 9 November 1918 in Shirin Town, Taihoku Chō,

Japanese Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sin ...

(modern-day

Shilin District Shilin District (also spelled Shihlin District, zh, t=士林區, p=Shìlínqū, poj=Sū-lîm-khu) is a district of Taipei. The central command center of the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) is located in Shilin. History The name ''Shilin'' w ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

). His birth name was Lîm Tiâu-hui (). Aged 11, he began using his maternal surname Shih (). After graduating from

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

with a degree in political science and economics in 1942, he left for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

where he worked undercover with the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(1942–1949). For years, he averted the Chinese Communists’ bids for him to join the party. Finally he escaped from

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

to Taiwan, just as the Chinese Nationalist

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

soldiers were retreating to Taiwan. Having returned to Taiwan for about a year, he established the

Taiwan Independence Revolutionary Armed Force The Taiwan Independence Revolutionary Armed Force () was a radical Taiwan independence group. It was secretly organized by Su Beng, Zhou Hao, Huang Yuan, and Chou Ching-An, with the aim of assassinating the President of the Republic of China (ROC) ...

in 1950 which plotted for the assassination of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. When the Taiwan Independence Revolutionary Armed Force stash of weapons were discovered hidden on land owned by Su Beng's grandmother in 1951, Su Beng was forced to go into hiding. After several months on the run, he finally fled to Japan in May 1952 by stowing away in a boat exporting bananas. He served four months of detention for attempting to illegally enter the country, but when the Kuomintang reported him missing and wanted for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese government granted him

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

. Later on in 1954, Su Beng opened up a noodle shop restaurant () in

Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro Station, and several shops, restaurants, and department stores are located within city limits. Transportation At the center of Ikebukuro is ...

, Japan. Su Beng used the restaurant/residence as a base to continue his work with the underground

. It was also here that he trained burgeoning independence activists and began writing '' Taiwan’s 400 Year History''. The Japanese version of this book was first published in 1962, the Chinese-language version was published in 1980 and an abridged English version was published in 1986.

Return from exile

In 1993, Su Beng returned to reside in Taipei, Taiwan. The following year, April 1994, he began the Taiwan Independence Action motorcade, which he conceived as a way to raise the Taiwanese people’s consciousness. The motorcade makes its rounds from Taipei county to Taipei city, every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, delivering messages calling for Taiwan’s independence and the normalization of Taiwan as a country. Labeled a radical, violent militant and communist, he was dubbed the "

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

of Taiwan". Several tall tales existed about Su Beng’s controversial life decisions, one of which included electing to have a

vasectomy Vasectomy is an elective surgical procedure that results in male sterilization, often as a means of permanent contraception. During the procedure, the male vasa deferentia are cut and tied or sealed so as to prevent sperm from entering into ...

when he was in his twenties while working undercover for the CCP in China. Su died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure at Taipei Medical University Hospital on 20 September 2019, aged 100.

Pen name

He first used Su Beng (史明, literally "to clearly understand the history") as his pen name for '' Taiwanese’s 400 Year History'' in 1962. In choosing his pen name, he wanted to express his motivation for writing the book. Su Beng believed that once the Taiwanese people understand their unique history, they will be able to know who they are, what they want for themselves and their nation. The two characters which make up his name mean "history" and "clear", respectively. Taken together, they may be interpreted as “history clearly”, as in “to know history clearly.”

References

External links

Website About Su Beng maintained and written by his English Biographer Felicia LinSu Beng's personal (Chinese language) website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Su, Beng 1918 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Taiwanese historians Anti-imperialism in Asia Communism in Taiwan Deaths from multiple organ failure Deaths from pneumonia in Taiwan Far-left politics in Taiwan Left-wing nationalism Senior advisors to President Tsai Ing-wen Taiwan independence activists Taiwanese men centenarians Taiwanese exiles Taiwanese expatriates in Japan Taiwanese Marxists Taiwanese nationalists Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent Taiwanese revolutionaries Waseda University alumni Writers from Taipei