Thng Tekchiong (POJ: Thng Tek-chiong, 6 January 1907 – 13 March 1947), also known as , was a Taiwanese lawyer of Japanese descent, born in

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

during Japanese rule. He was killed in the February 28 Incident.

Life

Tekchiong's parents Tokuzo Sakai and Thng Gio̍k married in 1902. At the time, marriages between Japanese and Taiwanese were illegal, and Tekchiong took his maternal surname. Tekchiong's father was a police officer. He died when Tekchiong was eight years old, as a result of attacks on police stations organized by supporters of . The family was not compensated, and Tekchiong grew up poor. He received some financial help from a traditional Han physician named Iûⁿ Choân. He graduated from Tapani Elementary School, but dropped out of Tainan Normal School (now the National University of Tainan), and worked on his family's farm, and then later at a sugar refinery. At that time, he enhanced his knowledge and fighting skills by learning Classic Sinitic language,

Four Books and Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism. Four Books The Four Books () are C ...

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

and

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

. In 1927, he passed the formal civil service examination and became a Tainan Prefecture Patrol officer deployed to . He married a year later. Tekchiong left law enforcement to pursue legal studies in Japan at the age of 32. He returned to Taiwan in 1943.

February 28 Incident

Thng Tekchiong was elected mayoral candidate by all Tainan senators, leaders of villages citizen organizations, and student representatives in 1947, when the February 28 Incident occurred. After the 21st Division of

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...

(NRA) descended on Tainan, about twenty gendarmes broke into Tekchiong's house on 11 March 1947, to arrest him for the crime of rebellion. During his arrest, Tekchiong burned a list containing the names of people on the Settlement Committee, an action regarded to have saved their lives. Tekchiong was interrogated by NRA soldiers regarding his ancestry, to which Tang reportedly replied, "I was born in Taiwan, I was raised in Taiwan. Am I not Taiwanese?" They insisted he was Japanese and Tekchiong challenged them to question him in the Japanese language. The next day, Tekchiong was hung upside down, tortured and paraded. On 13 March, Tekchiong was shot at Taishō Park (大正公園).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Te-chang February 28 incident Executed Taiwanese people Taiwanese people of Japanese descent 20th-century Taiwanese lawyers Tsou people 1907 births 1947 deaths People from Tainan Taiwanese police officers People executed by the Republic of China by firearm