Mr. Yoichi Hatta 八田與一 技師

1886 - 1942

The Father of WuSanTou Reservoir and ChiaNan Irrigation Systems (烏山頭水庫及嘉南大圳 之父)


And a love story beyond race, nationality and life





Sotoyo and Yoichi Hatta














The Dam at work





I received a phone call from my friend in Chicago few months ago. He said that in this blog site I have let go a big fish, probably the biggest one so far. After some research, I concluded that my friend was correct. It was a very big one indeed.

There was no excuse on my part even though I was among many Taiwanese who were not totally aware of the story. Five years after the tragic death of Mr. Yoichi Hatta, Chiang Kai-Shek’s regime came to Taiwan and began to suppress much of the local culture and history, especially Taiwanese and Japanese. Thus the story of Yoichi Hatta was virtually buried until early 1980’s.

Like most Taiwanese, I heard of the O-Soaⁿ-Thâu Reservoir and Chia-Nan (Ka-Lâm) Tōa-Chùn (烏山頭水庫及嘉南大圳.) But I did not attempt to find out further or what actually had happened. As recent as May of 2009, pushed by the universities and some local non-for-profit organizations in both Taiwan and Japan, the endorsement campaign to bring the O-Soaⁿ-Thâu (Wushantou) Reservoir System into the World Heritage (烏山頭水庫水利系統登錄世界遺產) has begun.

For us, it’s never too late to find out more, and certainly now is the time to remember some of the most important “Taiwanese” that I have missed.

Mr. Hatta was a Japanese civil engineer, born in Kanazawa on Feb. 21, 1886. He received his schooling at Tokyo University. After his graduation in 1910, Hatta decided to seek a carrier in distant Taiwan, taking up a post within the Civil Engineering Department under the Viceroy Office of the Taiwan Prefecture.

Hatta eagerly tackled his work, traveling vigorously throughout Taiwan to appraise the land. Planning of the waterworks for Taipei city became his first major assignment, to be followed by an irrigation/drainage project in Taoyuan County. Implemented in 1916, the project established Hatta's reputation as a capable civil engineer. In anticipation of his expertise, Director-General Yamagata of the Civil Engineering Department then assigned Hatta to lead an irrigation project planned for Wusantou in Tainan County, a barren territory where even the tough sugarcanes refused to grow.

The ambitious enterprise was a brainchild of the young civil engineer himself, and was conceived with the objectives of water resource development and flood control within the Chia-Nan Plains -- a region previously troubled by droughts, floods and salt injury.

Launched in 1920, the project consisted of the construction of the Wusantou dam, a lock and 16,000 kilometers of waterway, the Chia-Nan Irrigation River. Yoichi Hatta himself migrated to Chia-Nan to oversee the project. Heavy machinery including 50-ton cranes and a German steam locomotive were mobilized in the construction of the 1,273 meter-long Wusantou Dam, the largest civil engineering project in Asia at the time. The locomotive which labored in the construction is proudly exhibited in a dam-side park. Along with the most advanced machinery of the time, traditional methods were also utilized including herds of water buffalos used to trample the surface into a firm foundation.

The project saw its completion in 1930, boosting the agricultural productivity of the region by an enormous margin. The waterways constructed channeled water to 150,000 hectares of farmland within the Chia-Nan Plains. The fertile spreads of farmland now seen within Tainan County are the direct fruits of this undertaking. The total project expense amounted to nearly one-half of an annual budget for the Taiwanese Viceroyship.

On may 5, 1942, Yoichi Hatta boarded a ship bound for the Philippines on assignment to evaluate the possibility of an irrigation project along with a party of Japanese scientists, economists, and industrial experts participating in the investigation of the newly occupied territory. The vessel, Taiyo-Maru encountered an American submarine -- SS210 Grenadier, and was sank off the Goto Islands on May 8th. Hatta was not among the survivors of the incident. His corpse was later miraculously recovered by a fisher boat operating off the coast of Yamaguchi.

Hatta's wife, Sotoyo received the tragic news in Wusanto, where she found refuge until the end of the war. On September 1, 1945, the very same day she reunited with her son who was evacuated in a different location during the war, Sotoyo drowned herself in a discharge channel which her husband toiled to build. The farewell note she left said, "I am following my beloved". It was two days before Japan signed the instrument of surrender and all Japanese were soon to be dismissed from Taiwan.

A grave overlooking the dam was made for the couple, one year after the death of the wife. It was set up by the beneficiaries of Hatta's grand undertaking -- the farmers of the Chia-nan region. In 1978, a memorial service was performed for Yoichi and Sotoyo, and a cenotaph was erected in Honren-Ji temple in Nagasaki, Japan.

A statue commemorating the commitment of Yoichi Hatta was erected adjacent to the dam on July 8, 1931. It was created with contributions gathered from the workers that engaged in the construction of the Chia-nan Irrigation River out of a sheer sense of respect for the young project leader. It depicted him in a very peculiar posture -- sitting down, fondling his hair with his right hand set on an uplifted knee. This was the style the engineer always took when he was sunk in deep thought. In the height of WWII, the statue mysteriously vanished when the State attempted its confiscation as a measure to purvey depriving metal. After the war, Kuomintang government took control of Taiwan. Showing affinity toward Japan and the Japanese were forbidden, deemed to be treasonous behavior. Buildings and monuments constructed under the rule of the Japanese were toppled down.
After the harsh reign of Chiang Kai-Shek, the statue reappeared in 1981 to the astonishment of the general public. It was carefully hidden in a warehouse within the region, and later within a lodging house of the Chia-nan Irrigation Association by its members despite the danger of material harm and even death. Ever since the restoration of the statue, memorial services are hosted by the Association on 8th of May each year, commemorating the anniversary of Yoichi's death.

The achievements of the civil engineer are not forgotten, passed down across the generations with unchanging feelings of gratitude. In recent years, the ceremony has become an opportunity for exchange among the Japanophiles of Taiwan, and the Japanese feeling affinity towards Taiwan.

On May 8th 2001, "Hatta Memorial Museum" was opened beside the waterway, introducing the vestiges of the Japanese civil engineer.

-- Source http://gomushi.at.infoseek.co.jp/eng/world/taiwan/001.html

Some Related Websites:
http://seed.agron.ntu.edu.tw/hatta/activity/sympo090508.htm
http://jeffchou.net/yourdon/2004/004/
http://seed.agron.ntu.edu.tw/hatta/clhouse.htm
http://seed.agron.ntu.edu.tw/hatta/eng.htm

Upcoming Story: http://taiwanesepictures.blogspot.com/
Dr. A-Sin Tsai 蔡阿信 醫師

Quick Indexed View: http://TaiwanOpensites.blogspot.com/

Rev. So Thian-bêng 蘇天明 牧師

Rev. and Mrs. So Thian-bêng

1911-2000... 1915-2009



"I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me."


This is not about the bio of the Rev. So (So Bok-su.) This is about a personal memory and reflections of a well respected pastor. So Bok-su had influenced my ministry directly and indirectly in so many ways. He was the officiator of my marriage ceremony and I was ordained in his church. My mother had been an elder and a Sunday school teacher from 1957 thru 1972 in his church. I have come to know many members of Sin-Heng Church that they have since become some of my closest friends in Taiwan.

Needless to say that So Bok-su had well connections in the Presbyterian Church network. His wife (許玉珠) was a sister of the Rev. Kho Iú-Châi (許有才). Their two eldest daughters married to pastors (蘇惠馨/謝穎男; 蘇惠蓁/駱維道) who turned out to be professors and then presidents of the two major theological seminaries in Taiwan. All his children are active in various communities and churches throughout Taiwan, Japan and the United States.

So Bok-su had also been deeply involved in the Taiwanese PKU (POĒ-KA ŪN-TŌNG, 倍加運動) double-the-church-movement in 1959 when he was the Moderator of the General Assembly. He had been leading the Overseas Mission Board (海外宣道會 ) of the General Assembly and The Church Press (教會公報社) for many years. Kaohsiung Sin-Heng church (新興, the church So Bok-su had served for more than 35 years,1954-1989) has been a major powerhouse behind the rapid growth of the churches in Kaohsiung area along with a new born Siū-San Presbytery (壽山中會, 1972). I would need a page or two just to list his achievements and titles.

But the intentions here, again, are just my recollections:

• As early as 1938, So Bok-su was co-chaplain with Rev Ng Su-Beng (黃俟命 http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/05/rev-su-beng-huang.html ) at the Changhua Christian Hospital. The chaplain experience there might have made a strong impact to young So Bok-su. The vital bridges of services must be built between the church and the society. Perhaps that was why Sin-Heng church, the church he serviced the longest, had started a full scale Social Service Hall (社會館) in 1962, one of the earliest social services in Taiwan Presbyterian Church history.
So Bok-su, along with Dr. C Y Peng (彭清約) and other medical professionals, should also be credited to the campus ministry at the Kaohsiung Medical College and beyond in early 1960s.

• Before So Bok-su came to Sin-Heng church, he was the pastor at the near by Old-Town church (Kū-Siâⁿ舊城). It is said that So Bok-su was once asked to cast the evil spirit out of a person. The moment he arrived, the ‘patient’ spoke out loudly, “Okay okay, you win! I will go away by myself. Just leave me alone. You have enough ‘fruits of the Spirit’ which have overpowered me already!”

• So Bok-su was once facing some unsubstantial accusations within the church. I was told by my mother later that I should learn from So Bok-su on that matter. During the entire process he kept quiet. The truth prevailed after all. The arguments stopped, and the accusations died quietly as well.

• So Bok-su was personally involved in all activities of the church and the spiritual growth of his congregations. He did not play the role of the commander, but the actual doer. His life style spoke itself and convinced the people around him that he had been sincerely and truthfully acting as what a good shepherd should be.

• During the funeral/memorial service of Dr. C Y Peng (彭清約
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/01/dr-c-y-peng.html) I was with the church choir then. And I was surprised to hear So Bok-su said with tears - referring to the medical treatment that Dr. Peng received when he became ill, “What has the modern advanced medicine done to our dear friend Elder Peng?” To say the least, it showed how much he had loved Dr. Peng and how much he had already missed him. As the matter of fact, So Bok-su had shared his tears with us, and had spoken from his heart for all of the church members.

• The last time I met So Bok-su was in 1995, the first time I came back home after almost 20 years abroad. We had lunch together with a few friends including Elder Koeh Gôan-sêng (郭源成.) As I looked at So Bok-su and Bok-su-niû (Mrs. So), something struck me all of a sudden. I then realized that how the aging process took its toll on each and every one of us. The beloved So Bok-su and Bok-su-niû were just there, as quiet as ever. So Bok-su did not need to say anything. His life was a good example and a great sermon by itself.

And the title of the sermon could easily be called “A Good Shepherd…”

"I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep."

* Some Related Websites (Chinese)
http://blog.xuite.net/pingan/history/6001344
http://www.kss.org.tw/www/introduction
http://ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?jnlcattype=2&jnlptype=10&jnltype=2960&jnliid=4337&issueiid=75005&atliid=1330373
http://ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?jnlcattype=2&jnlptype=10&jnltype=2960&jnliid=4337&issueiid=75005&atliid=1330380

**** Introducing the online community of the Christian Century http://theolog.org/

Dr. John Sung 宋尚節 博士

1901-1944

"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"




The Memory

My father, as I recall during my childhood, would prepare the mosquitoes’ net, pillows, and blankets upon a cluster of ta-ta-mi (Japanese straw-mattresses where everybody slept on) while singing, “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you…” Isaiah 44:22 NASB (Góa chhàt-siau líau lí ê chōe-kòa, ná o’-hûn siau-sòaⁿ…Lí tioh kui-ng Góa, in-üi Góa kiù-siok lí…) My father was not much a singer, and he was always out of tune when he sang. But his love to us and his respect for Dr. Sung’s revival hymns were unquestionable.

My mother, on the other hand, always talked about Dr. Sung as if he were the real model preacher of her life. Perhaps he was. I thought for sometime that Sung was one of the Taiwanese preachers. I also remember that my mother told me when Dr. Sung boarded the ship in Kaohsiung harbor on his final day in Taiwan, he still found time to pray and perform the healing power of the Holy Spirit for those who came to say goodbye.

My 86-year-old aunt told me a side story of Dr. Sung recently. She said that a group of people from Kaohsiung attended Dr. Sung’s final revival meeting in Tainan. Afterward, they took a train home. And in the train, they’d keep on singing that famous song, “Come on home, Come on home!” (Tò-lâi ah, tò-lâi ah, m-thang koh hòng-tōng. Chû-ài Thiⁿ-Pē chhun khui I siang-chhiú, Ng-bāng lí tò-lâi!) She also said that some pictures of Dr. Sung with Dr. C Y Peng (http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/01/dr-c-y-peng.html) and friends were taken in Kaohsiung before Sung returned to A-Moy (廈門.)

Mrs. Au Chìn-an (歐進安牧師娘) well into her 90’s, has told me that while preaching in Mandarin, Dr. Sung, who knew Taiwanese very well, would correct the translator immediately when some words went wrong. The translators would take them with smiles.
Well, the event that made a long and huge wave in Taiwan Christian history in the first half of the 20th Century took place in 1936. The impact of Dr. Sung remains in effect even today. His revival hymns are still sung and sermons quoted. Dr. Sung was very much among the most influential preachers in the 20th century even in his rather short life.

His early Years

Sung was born in
Putian (莆田), Fujian, China. His father, Rev. S L Sung (宋學連) was a pastor of a Wesleyan Methodist Church while the younger Sung had helped some parish work including preaching when his father was ill. The young Sung was even called a “Little Pastor.”

The Sung was brilliant throughout his school works. With the help of an American missionary and a scholarship from the Wesleyan University of Ohio, Sung began his journey to the US in 1919. He then moved on to his graduate study at the Ohio State University. In 1926, he earned his PhD in chemistry.

Facing tons of career opportunities, Sung virtually turned everything down. He believed that, instead of simply following his father’s steps as a pastor, he was called by God to commit himself to work for the gospel of Christ in a special way. He soon entered the Union Theological Seminary in New York for further study.

The Turning Point

During his early period at the seminary (on that night of February 10, 1927) John Sung claimed to have received the gift of the Holy Spirit during a time of prayer. He once exclaimed, “This is my spiritual birthday!" John Sung later described that, “The Holy Spirit poured onto me, just like water, on top of my head continuously, wave after wave…”

Since that experience John Sung was radically changed in just about every aspect of his life. With straight face, he began to preach to his peers and the lecturers in the seminary. He was quickly considered a man out of his mind. For a little over six months Sung was confined in an insane asylum by the seminary authorities.

In that period of isolation, John Sung set himself to read the Bible. It was during this stay that he read through the entire Bible 40 times and soon became very familiar and well versed in its teachings. This period of Scriptural reading and spiritual renewal laid the foundations for one of the greatest revivals of the 20th Century.

The Ministries

Upon his release through the arrangement of the Chinese Consulate, Sung returned to China in November 1927. As one would expect, there was no diploma from the Union Theological Seminary in New York. In showing his commitment to the gospel Dr. Sung threw all his academic awards into the sea. He only kept the doctorate diploma for his father.

He soon began his preaching in the southern Fujian region for three years. His messages concentrated on The Cross of Jesus, The Spiritual Birth/Born Again, and The Ultimate Salvation. He began preaching extensively in China and Southeast Asia where the Chinese and the Taiwanese speaking communities were. In 1931, with a few pastors, he formed a "Bethel Evangelistic Band." And his sermons then focused on how to deal with sins. His powerful and charismatic preaching style (he would frequently sing those revival hymns in the middle of the sermons, and occasionally jumped up and down while shouting) had often made his listeners confess their sins in public. His critics called Dr. Sung a pure religious nut.

Like all other great preachers, Sung was a man of prayer. He often spent hours in prayers while the list of prayer requests poured in. Sung was quoted as defining faith as "watching God work while on your knees". By 1936, before his trip to Taiwan, it was believed that Sung had converted between 50,000 and 100,000 people.

Three Weeks in Taiwan: April 16 - May 8, 1936

Invited by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, with co-workers, Rev. C J Wang and C C Wang (王宗仁 王宗誠) Sung arrived Taiwan. The trip was one of the many for Dr. Sung, but the impact to Christianity in Taiwan was tremendous.

Week 1: At Tōa-Tiü-Tiâⁿ Church (大稻埕教會) of Taipei, there were nearly 2000 people gathered to listen to Dr. Sung’s messages. Dr. Sung organized more than 130 evangelical teams to help him spread the good news.

Week 2: At Líu-Gôan Church (柳原教會) of Taichung the audience doubled. Many followed Dr. Sung from northern Taiwan. Many more people benefited from Dr. Sung’s messages and prayers. His evangelical groups grew rapidly as well.

Week 3: Originally the selected church was East Gate (Tang-Mng 東門教會, the largest church in Tainan then) but the meetings had to be relocated to the open filed of the Tainan Theological Seminary with bamboo-built tents where nearly 5000 people gathered from all over southern and eastern Taiwan. The number of the evangelical teams who closely worked with Dr. Sung almost amounted to 500.

As the result of the three-week revival meetings, many new churches were founded and many more Christians experienced the born-again refreshing joy. Offerings from the audience were overwhelming, including cash, gold and silver jewelries. Some people had committed themselves into the full time ministry.

It is said that Dr. Sung’s three-week messages had greatly helped the Taiwanese Christians endure the Japanese forceful ruling and through the horrible World War II.

Dr. Sung’s Legacy

I have never met any Christians over the age of 80, in or from Taiwan, who had not heard of Dr. Sung. In fact, these people have not only heard of him, but have been affected by his messages. For a three-week journey, it was rather a miracle in itself.

There are many books about Dr. Sung. And among his legacy, such as love, faith, courage, endless prayers, the healing power, and the great team work…I pick his honesty and integrity.

Dr. Sung's messages were like the straight arrows shooting into human hearts. In his perspectives, the gospel did not need any complicated theological arguments, just answered “Yes” and turned around.

Dr. Sung was never really healthy in his adult life. His tight schedules did not help much either. Towards the final years of his life, the tuberculosis had plagued him and deeply affected his work. When he passed away he was just about three weeks short of his 43rd birthday. Yet his spiritual fruits, in Taiwan and elsewhere, are still multiplying even to this day.


Websites Referenced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sung
http://www.laijohn.com/works/aleaf/75.htm
http://kuanye.net/shuku/bookread.php?no=4382&code=big5
http://www.bdcconline.net/zh-hant/stories/by-person/s/song-shangjie.php
http://vicchew.tripod.com/drjohn.htm

* Quick Sites Index/View: http://TaiwanOpensites.blogspot.com/

Dr. Chen-Yuan Lee 李鎮源 院士

Dr. Chen-Yuan Lee 1915-2001

The Young, the Wise and the Figure

Professor Chen-yuan Lee 李鎮源 was born in the town of Kiô-á-thâu (橋子頭) of Kaohsiung Prefecture in 1915, born to a distinguished family originally from Tainan City. At the time Taiwan was under Japanese sovereignty. Upon finishing high school, he matriculated in the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei, one of the seven “Imperial Universities” in pre-war Japan. In 1936 he was among the first students to enter the Medical Faculty. Upon graduation in 1940 a number of the Japanese faculty attempted to recruit him to their laboratories. However, he took up a position as teaching assistant at the Institute of Pharmacology under the direction of Professor Tsung-ming Tu 杜聰明, the only Taiwanese professor in the Medical Faculty at the time. Professor Tu’s main interest was toxicological research on the snake venom and opium. Lee received his M.D. degree with his research on the venom of the poisonous viper Vipera russelli formosensis. Thus began his life-long career in snake venom research.

Taiwan’s gift to science. Since the world-renowned French scientist Claude Bernard’s research on the South American arrow poison in the 19th century, it had been known for over 100 years that the nerve transmits its signal to muscles by way of a special receptor on the muscle surface. However, many attempts at isolating the special receptor had failed. The main obstacle was the lack of a suitable “tag” to label the receptor so that researchers could track the progress of isolation. The turning point came when Dr. Lee and his student C. C. Chang 張傳炯 isolated a toxin from the venom of an indigenous Taiwanese snake. The two researchers were studying the venom of the Formosan banded crait, Bungarus multicinctus, a species closely related to the Bengal snake, Bungarus bungarus, which figures prominently in an episode of Sherlock Holmes. In 1963 they successfully isolated from the venom two neurotoxins which they named α-bungarotoxin and β-bungarotoxin. They found that the snake produces α-bungarotoxin to specifically bind to the special receptor on the muscle surface and block the nerve transmission. They realized that this toxin was what scientists all over the world were dreaming to have for tagging the receptor in order to help extracting it from the muscle surface. Dr. Lee took the toxin and visited many research laboratories in the world, extolling the virtue of the toxin. Eventually in 1970 two prominent laboratories, one at the University College London and the other the Pasteur Institute in Paris, simultaneously reported that they used α-bungarotoxin to successfully isolate the long sought-after receptor from the muscle surface. With this breakthrough a long sequence of advances in neuroscience followed, eventually leading to much improvement in the understanding and therapy of many neuromuscular diseases.

Tributes for his contribution to the breakthrough in science soon followed. In 1976 Dr. Lee received the Redi Award, the highest honor bestowed by the International Society on Toxinology. He was invited by the German publisher in science Springer Verlag to edit a volume specifically on Snake Venoms (please see Figure above), which was published in 1979 in the prestigious series of Handbuch der experimentellen Pharmakologie. The handbook series was started by German scientists at the founding of modern pharmacology in the 19th century and have been regarded as the “final word” in pharmacology. It is a mark of highest distinction for a scientist to be the chief editor of a handbook devoted to the subject of his/her research interest. Subsequently in 1985, Dr. Lee was elected president of the International Society on Toxinology.

Advocate for human rights in Taiwan. After World War II Taiwan was ruled by the dictator Chiang Kai-Shek and his eldest son Chiang Ching-Kuo. The regime, supported by the U.S., put the whole island under martial laws for 50 years, which was marked as a reign of terror, abject subjugation of the Taiwanese and native peoples, and trampling of human rights and civil liberties. There was no freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association. People would disappear without a trace. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was a frequent target of harassment. Against this background, Dr. Lee joined other university colleagues and intellectuals to protest against the government in late 1980s. Following the abolishment of the martial laws, the Nationalist government used a loosely interpreted Criminal Code Article 100 (刑法100條) to arrest and persecute protestors and opposition members. Dr. Lee, who had been an Academician of Taiwan’s National Academy of Science (Academia Sinica 中央研究院 院士) since 1970, became a leader of the movement against this law. The most famous demonstration was the one in which he and other protestors held a lying-in on the broad avenue leading to the Presidential House. This eloquent act awakened Taiwan’s society and subsequently the Criminal Code Article 100 was abolished, another defining achievement for Dr. Lee.
Eventually the tide was turned against the Nationalist regime, which lost the presidential election in 2000 to the opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party. At the victory rally in the night of 18 March 2000, the national TV networks showed a Dr. Lee, standing on the stage right behind the president-elect Mr. Chen Shui-bian, smiling with the happiest smile he ever had in his life.

In two most important things in his life, science for the world and democracy for Taiwan, Dr. Lee was able to make the greatest contributions. Professor Lee passed away on 1 November 2001 following an illness of blood dyscrasia. Dr. Barbara Hawgood of Queen Elizabeth College, London, writing about Dr. Lee’s life in the scientific journal Toxicon, concludes most aptly, “Professor Chen-Yuan Lee is held in high regard and great respect, both in his own country and internationally.”

References:
Barbara J. Hawgood (2002). Professor Chen-Yuan Lee, MD (1915-2001), pharmacologist: snake venom research at the Institute of Pharmacology, National Taiwan University. Toxicon 40: 1065-1072.
Lindy Yeh (2001). Newsmaker: Taiwan loses a fiery independence fighter. Taipei Times November 3rd, 2001. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/archives/2001/11/03/0000109885

** The article above has been contributed by Emeritus Prof. Chau H. Wu of Northwestern University, a former student of Dr. Lee at the National Taiwan University **

In 1987 Dr. Lee was awarded for his achievement in the science and technology (科技工程獎) by the Taiwanese American Foundation.

In May of 2001, Dr. Lee, on his wheelchair, received a special Dr. Lai Ho Award (http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/02/dr-lai-ho.html). During the ceremony, Dr. Lee reminded the medical professionals in Taiwan to raise the moral standards all around, and to revive the values of the Taiwanese culture by all means.

In short, Dr. Lee was a rare gift to Taiwan: in Science, Culture and Conscience.

- S. Chen 　

* Related Website: http://taiwantt.org.tw/taiwanspirit/html/40.htm

* Quick Sites Index/View: http://TaiwanOpensites.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas, Taiwan!

• Area : 36,000 square kilometers

• Population: 23 million

• Capital : Taipei City

• Language : Taiwanese/Mandarin/Hakka/Indigenous Languages

• Religion : Buddhism/Taoism/Christianity/Islam

Like Taiwan, Christmas is mostly about memory. The memory of the way we were celebrating, eating, rejoicing, caroling, and dancing with graceful tears in our eyes…

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Like Taiwan, Christmas is green, deep green with the essence of life: the darkness of death. Yet in Jesus, to many, one expected to see life beyond.

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Like Taiwan, Christmas is a whisper in our ears. A whisper to you and me as it was to Mary and Joseph. The voice stays long after it was spoken. It stays in our minds, and in our hearts: “Fear not !! I am with you, always...”

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Like Taiwan, a solitary island on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, the first Christmas began with a solitary journey of Mary and Joseph. Facing the unknown future, somehow they were not afraid. They knew one thing for sure: their journey was with God.

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“Do not be afraid... Walk with God.”

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Merry Christmas to you, Taiwan!

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Related website:

http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=592&Itemid=258

Mr. Bo Yang 柏楊 先生

1920 – 2008







Not to be praising and pleasing the emperors
But to be speaking truthfully for the people
不為君王唱讚歌
只為蒼生說人話

Bo Yang (originally named Kuo 郭) was born one year after Ms. Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly (http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/09/marjorie-ingeleiv-bly.html) also in Henan, China. Two different life stories yet shared the same destiny. One, a Western missionary’s daughter turned herself a missionary as well; the other, a Chinese intellectual ended up spending all his adult life mostly "fighting" for the human rights in Taiwan.

Six months after his death (2008/4/29), there are still many Bo Yang’s stories in the news, the book stores, and the websites. What triggered me to include his story in this blog site was that somewhere in his writings, he said that he never ate such a great tasty fruit as the banana of Taiwan.

Well, anybody who spent so many years in Taiwan, embraced the Taiwanese communities, and dedicated so much of energy to the well beings of the Taiwanese, is considered Taiwanese, wherever he was born. Little wonder in 1999 Bo Yang was awarded the Humanistic Sciences Award by Taiwanese American Foundation.

Bo Yang had his life in Taiwan divided into five periods:

• Ten years in novels (十年小說)
• Ten years in essays (十年雜文)
• Ten years in prisons (十年牢獄)
• Five years in columns (五年專欄)
• Ten years in histories (十年通鑑)
  

Popeye the Sailor

In 1968, he translated the popular cartoon “Popeye the Sailor” in a Taiwanese newspaper. Once published, due to the insinuation of the nature of the story in the eyes of Chiang Kai-sek, the result: Bo Yang spent nearly 10 years in Green Island, the then infamous political prison in Taiwan. Prior to that, in the 1950’s while Bo Yang worked at Ping-Tung Agricultural School, he was imprisoned for 7 months when he was caught listening to the Chinese communist’s radio broadcasting.

Bo Yang was not ‘corrected’ a bit because the imprisonment. He continued to write articles afterward. In the eyes of the rulers then he was just a trouble-maker. He was one of the few intellectuals in Taiwan (e.g., C Lei 雷震 and S L Wu 吳三連) and dared to challenge the then Nationalist Party (KMT) political rationality and its core existence.

The Ugly Chinese

Bo Yang was not the first one wrote/talked (a speech at Iowa in 1984) about the ugly Chinese. Besides Lu Shiun (鲁迅) there was a British philosopher by the name of Bertrand Russell, who wrote a book called The Ugly Chinese. However it was Bo Yang’s speech (later published) made him an instant ‘star’ in the cultural and academic circles among the Chinese communities around the world. His in depth criticism of the never-changing Chinese value system (Soy-Sauce-Jar-Culture 醬缸文化) made friends as well as enemies all over.

His Writings

Other than his novels, essays and columns, Bo Yang spent years re-writing the Chinese histories in a way that most people could understand. His novels were very good, yet somehow overshadowed by his powerful and critical essays and columns. As expected, Bo Yang's provocative writings also led him to be attacked by the Chinese Communists.

Bo Yang was one of the founders of the Amnesty International in Taiwan. He, among others, made the human right possible - with a heavy toll - in the Taiwanese political environment while the majority was silent.

His Life

Some of his friends asked him to summarize his life story. He said he had been in hell a few times, “I did have more tears than laughter, but most Chinese suffered even more than I have been.” Few can argue that.

Bo Yang was a thinker and a writer, but it was the way he described himself that touched many people’s hearts:

Not to be praising and pleasing the emperors
But to be speaking truthfully for the people
不為君王唱讚歌
只為蒼生說人話

Unaware the severe cold and the dangerous arrows
A lonely bird flew into the dreams for many
孤鴻不知冰霜至
仍將展翅迎箭飛

Good bye and thank you, the bird with a big heart!



Some Websites:

http://chenlc03.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!6E507401510BA7C2!473.entry

http://bloguide.ettoday.com/xiangyang/textview.php?file=148652 (Chinese)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://www.tafaward.com/Award%2520Recipients/1999/Ch_Humanity1_1999.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25E6%259F%258F%25E6%25A5%258A%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/book/2003-03/18/content_784620.htm (Chinese)

http://groups.google.vg/group/alt.obituaries/browse_thread/thread/ce5f87b19928d52d

Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly 白寶珠 宣教師

Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly

1919-2008

Where there is love, there is life...

Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly was born in Henan, China, on May 30, 1919, to missionary parents John M. and Minnie S. Bly. She attended school in Northfield, Minnesota, graduated from St. Olaf College in 1941 and from the St. Olaf-Fairview Hospital Nurses Program in 1944. She first went to China in 1946 as a missionary nurse under the sponsorship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Missionary Board. She left China in 1949/50, then returned in 1952 to the mission field in Taiwan, focusing on caring for and treating the many leprosy patients in the islands of Penghu.

Penghu, located in the middle of Taiwan Strait, little known by many foreigners, is a County consists of more than 90 islands. Some 80 miles east of Mainland China and 30 miles west of Taiwan, Penghu residents are mostly fishermen. During those years of Bly’s service in Makung, Penghu, Taiwan was known for her economic miracles from cheap labors in the early ‘60s advanced to the high tech exports in the 80’s and 90’s. Nevertheless, as in every other society, there were less fortunate people with disease such as leprosy who always needed extra care physically and spiritually. That was where Bly came in.

Bly was called Miss White (白姑娘) or Aunt White (白阿姨) or Grandma of Penghu (澎湖阿嬤). No matter what people called her, she was called with deep love and respect. When some Taiwanese news media arrived to interview Bly but not knowing where to go, a taxi driver was said to give them free rides, saying, “Make sure you write good stories about Miss White. We need more of Miss White here than ever.” That taxi driver later said softly that he was Bly’s patient once.

For the first twenty years or so Bly worked with a Roman Catholic priest Davide Luigi Giordan (何義士 神父) -- who also received award by President T H Lee. Bly was one of the first health care professionals in Taiwan who insisted of the privacy of the patients. She refused to give away any information of her patients other than to their immediate family members.

In 2006, after more than fifty years of dedicated work, she was able to report to the Superintendent of the Makung Hospital that she knew of no new cases of leprosy in Penghu in the previous two years and that the stigma of being treated for the disease had been nearly eradicated. That year and the year followed, the then Taiwan's President S B Chen visited her in Penghu to honor her for her lifetime of service to the Taiwanese people and to commission a statue of her to be built in her favorite Penghu Park.

Like many missionaries before her, Bly quietly and gracefully gave her life to the people of Taiwan. In her will, she had dedicated her last few thousand dollars to the people of Taiwan.

“What a beautiful sight! On the mountains a messenger announces to Jerusalem, ‘Good news! You're saved. There will be peace…"

Related Websites: http://www.legacy.com/startribune/obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=107560837

http://gospel.pct.org.tw/AssociatorArticle.aspx?strSiteID=S001&strBlockID=B00007&strContentID=C2008041700003&strDesc=Y&strCTID=CT0005&strASP=default