Martyrdom in Taipei

                                                             

                                                              

                                                               Credit: Historical Photo
            

Excerpt from my draft book Lavender Rising: An Intersectional History of the LGBTQI+ Struggle.

MRC: Army Math Research Centre in Madison-Wisconsin

1.12 MARTYRDOM IN TAIPEI

After a member of MRC tried to badmouth her in scurrilous terms, my CIA-bound girl-friend ‘The Mayflower Rose’ raised concerns with me during 1982 as to whether forces within and surrounding MRC had been complicit in the arrest during July 1981 of the Han Chinese martyr Chen Wen-Chen, an assistant professor of statistics at Carnegie-Mellon ( Cheng, 2021). Chen was allegedly hacked to death by the Taiwanese Secret Police, and his mutilated body discovered on the campus of the Taiwanese National University in Taipei. The Mayflower girl said that her information came from a distinguished female mathematician at Penn State

In 1993, and according to my memory, one of the Professors of Statistics at UW Madison circulated an e-mail to his departmental colleagues, which would have confirmed my suspicions. Unfortunately, the professor has since fervently denied sending any such e-mail. It therefore remains unproven in my perception as to whether there was indeed a plot within MRC. If there was a plot, then one possible motive could have been professional jealousy by a nasty MRC back-stabber.

See also Shan (2022), Carnegie-Mellon (2016), Chou (2003). Tina Chou was a celebrated Associated Press Reporter who investigated Chen Wen-Chen’s death, only to be pursued and persecuted by the Taiwanese despots herself.

In my mind, I see this all as part of a real-life Pynchonesque saga. Yes indeed, a screaming does come across the sky.

Wendy Cheng (2021) The Bold and Unruly Legacy of Wen Chen-Wen (New Bloom)

https://newbloommag.net/2021/07/02/chen-wen-chen-legacy/ Accessed 29 April 2023

Shelly Shan (2022) Archives of Chen murder ‘concealed without merit (Taiwan News) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2022/07/04/2003781106

Accessed 6 May 2023

Carnegie-Mellon (2016) Wen-chen Chen (Statistics and Data Science)

https://www.stat.cmu.edu/fifty/wen-chen-chen Accessed 6 May 2023

Tina Chou (2003) A Political Death and a Media Casualty (CWCMF)

http://www.cwcmf.org.tw/figure/media%20casualty_English-1.pdf