1895 – SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR)

This photo taken on Oct. 13, 2025 shows a monument set up in memory of fights against Japanese invasion on the Yanliao shore of southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)

Taiwan: “Silent” Monuments Commemorate Chinese Resistance [1895-1945] to Imperial Japanese Occupation! (19.10.2025)

19/10/2025 Adrian (釋大道)

The Japanese encountered the largest scale resistance in the mountainous Changhua County in central Taiwan. In August 1895, thousands of local militia gathered alongside remnants of the Qing army to resist the Japanese on a local hill named Baguashan.

They were outnumbered five to one and poorly armed but fought relentlessly for days, killing over 1,000 Japanese soldiers, including a general, before being overwhelmed. Fewer than 50 survived.

One of the leaders, Xu Xiang, left behind words that still stir the heart: “If this land falls, Taiwan is lost. I will not live to see the motherland again.”

Photo taken on Oct. 13, 2025 shows visitors at an exhibition commemorating the recovery of Taiwan and the Nanhai Zhudao (South China Sea islands), from Japanese occupation at Nanjing University in eastern China, in Jiangsu Province. (Photo: China News Service/Yang Bo)

China: Nanjing Exhibition – Resumption of Mainland Sovereignty Over Taiwan! (15.10.2025)

15/10/2025 Adrian (釋大道)

Beyond conventional displays, the exhibition features specialized sections on maritime culture, historical maps, and Geng Lu Bu (ancient sea route manuals). It also incorporates Augmented Reality (AR) technology to offer immersive experiences of the South China Sea’s historical and cultural heritage.

The core value of the exhibition lies not only in demonstrating China’s historical proposition and legal basis on the South China Sea issue and Taiwan question but also in helping teachers and students understand history and draw spiritual strength, said Zhu Feng, executive director of Nanjing University’s Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies.

“Only by clearly understanding the humiliations and struggles of the past can we more profoundly grasp the importance of safeguarding national sovereignty, which serves as the foundation for facing the future and building lasting peace,” he added.

Imperial Japanese Officer - Taiwan Massacre

Taiwan: Imperial Japanese Army Massacres 1870-1945! (17.9.2024)

17/09/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

That is, excluding the population growth rate between the Liu Mingchuan Period to 1895 (some 11 years), Taiwan’s population plummeted by 600,000 to 700,000 in less than a year – due to Japan’s policy of killing and expelling Taiwanese people! Between 1895-1897 the Imperial Japanese permitted ethnic Chinese people to leave Taiwan – but official figures record that only 4,456 Taiwanese people took this route of relocating to Mainland China. This process involved an official procedure of application – which was granted (or denied) by the Imperial Japanese Authorities on a case-by-case bases. Therefore, no matter how the numbers are calculated, from September 1895 to the end of 1896 (just over 1 year), the number of “unnatural” (or “massacred”) deaths of Taiwanese people suffered at the hands of the Imperial Japanese reached at least 500,000 – which is a credible figure.

China Commemorates 91st Anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression! (18.9.2022)

19/09/2022 Adrian (釋大道)

China resounds with the hashtag – 牢记九一八#！(#Keep in mind 918#!) – to remember the millions of Chinese people (and Allies) that were killed or maimed in China’s War Against International Fascism (which lasted between 1931-1945 and included the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945)! Imperial Japan was copying the Western model of imperialist and colonial aggression – and had invaded and occupied Northeast China in 1894-1895 (First Sino-Japanese War) and this aggressive behaviour eventually led to the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) – a conflict between an encroaching Czarist Russia an an ever-increasingly confident (modernising) Japan! Japan ended the conflict with controlling parts of Shenyang (formerly controlled by Czarist Russia) – but decided to launch a ‘War of Aggression’ from this platform on September 18th, 1931! Ironically, it would be the Soviet Red Army that would come to the aid of the Chinese people in 1945 and ‘crush’ the occupying Japanese Forces whilst completely ‘Liberating’ Northeast China – handing the captured territory (and material resources) to the control of the Communist Party of China!

Taiwan (1895-1945): 50 Years of Tyranny – How the Japanese Dealt with the Aborigine Uprising! (24.8.2022)

24/08/2022 Adrian (釋大道)

The above pictures and texts are selected from “Ecological Destruction and Social Control”, volume 24 of “Illustrations of Japanese Invasion of China”, Edited by Wu Jing (武菁) and published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House in May 2015. The Chronicle of Japanese Invasion of China consists of twenty-five volumes, Edited by Zhang Xianwen (张宪文), Senior Honorary Professor of Nanjing University. It is a Cooperation Project of the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, the Research Centre of the History of the Republic of China of Nanjing University, and Shandong Pictorial Publishing House Co., Ltd., and was selected into the “Twelfth Five-Year” National Key Book Publishing Planning Project, and was included in the National Press and Publication Reform and Development Project Library in 2014 library project.

Monument: Water-Trough and Cross – William Francis Gamul Farmer (1812- 1860) – BellGate Entrance – (East) Nonsuch Park [Cheam] (11.8.2022)

11/08/2022 Adrian (釋大道)

Willian Francis Gamul Farmer married one ‘Matilda Farmer (nee ‘Wilkinson’) [1815-1889] and produced eleven children with here – seven boys and four girls. The names of his children were William Robert Gamul Farmer, Thomas Allix Farmer, Matilda Frances Farmer, George Lancelot McLean Farmer, Margaret Anna Farmer, Emily Mary Farmer, Charles Edward Farmer, Revd. James Edmund Gamul Farmer, Henry Lowth Farmer, Catherine Augusta Farmer and Francis Colebrooke Farmer. He inherited from his grandfather when aged 26 years old (in 1838) and again from his father – William Meeke Farmer (1778-1840) – when he was 28 years old in 1840! This is why he lived the care-free life associated with the landed gentry. Willian Francis Gamul Farmer was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Surrey before reaching the Office of High Sheriff of the County of Surrey – when he received his appointment in 1849 (when he was around 37 years old). Indeed, so important a person was he – that an oil painting was commissioned to record this important event – which seems to show him around 37 years old (although I cannot find any verification for the date or the name of the artist, etc).

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