Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek statues draw curious crowds - and controversy

A visitor reads a note at an exhibition about Chiang Kai-shek in Taoyuan, Taiwan, June 20, 2020. Picture taken June 20, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang

TAOYUAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Unwanted for public spaces elsewhere in Taiwan, some 200 statues of the late autocratic leader Chiang Kai-shek stand in the quiet sanctuary of a park surrounding his mausoleum in the north of the island.

Chiang Kai-shek was lauded in life as an anti-communist hero, especially in the United States, and there are still more than 1,000 Chiang statues in public places around Taiwan. But attitudes towards him on the proudly democratic island have become more conflicted.