Wed, Oct 17, 2001 page3

• Association celebrates local culture

  CONSCIOUSNESS The Taiwan Culture Association celebrates its 80th anniversary today and says the country must keep working to promote local traditions

  • By Lindy Yeh / STAFF REPORTER
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  This evening leaders and members of the Southern Taiwan Society, the Central Taiwan Society, the Northern Taiwan Society and the Eastern Taiwan Society will gather at a concert in Taipei to commemorate the spirit of the Taiwan Culture Association (台灣文化協會).

  Today is the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the association, which aims to awaken a Taiwanese consciousness in its fellow citizens through cultural enlightenment.

  

  This picture, taken in January 1929, marks the ocassion of a meeting of the Taiwan Commons Party. Seated second from the right is Chiang Wei-sui, founder of the Taiwan Culture Association.

  PHOTO: THE COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL AFFAIRS

  President Chen Shui-bian is scheduled to attend the memorial concert.

  Whether by coincidence or by design, the leaders of the four societies are all medical doctors. Tseng Kuei-hai (曾貴海), head of the Southern Taiwan Society, is a physician, a poet and a social activist; Chong Kun-jing (鐘坤井), head of the Central Taiwan Society, is an obstetrician and gynecologist; Wu Shu-min (吳樹民), head of the Northern Society, is a physician and a presidential advisor; Peter Huang (黃勝雄), head of the Eastern Taiwan Society, is a neurosurgeon and president of the Hualien Mennonite Christian Hospital.

  Tragic, heroic past

  In 1921, with nationalism growing around the world, with independence movements springing up in countries under colonial rule, and with Taiwan in its 26th year as a Japanese colony, Taiwanese students and other members of the nation's social elite launched a petition drive in Tokyo for the establishment of a Taiwanese parliament. In support of their effort, Dr. Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水, 1891 to 1931), formed the Taiwan Culture Association at his clinic, Ta-an hospital (大安醫院) in Taipei, to help pursue autonomy for his homeland.

  Lai Ho (賴和, 1893 to 1943), also a medical doctor, was a member of the association and an enthusiastic writer. He wrote only in classical Chinese at first but then adopted the Taiwanese dialect as a major element in his literature.

  Apart from Lai's seminal role as a pioneer in the literary use of Taiwanese dialect and his effort in classical Chinese, his literary works were suffused with deep humanitarian concerns about Taiwanese who were disadvantaged under colonial rule. His short story, A Steelyard (一根稱子), has become a masterpiece of Taiwanese literature for its progressive use of language, artistic quality and social and historical references. His achievements earned him the title, "Father of new Taiwanese literature."

  Statistics show that of the 1032 members of the association, the majority were students from the Governor's Medical School, teacher training schools, business schools and former industrial schools. Among its 47 cadre members were 14 medical doctors. Of the 19 main donors to the petition movement for the Taiwanese parliament, most were landlords, and seven were doctors.

  In 1923, Chiang further organized the The Alliance for a Taiwan Parliament (台灣議會期成同盟會) to generate further momentum for the movement. Among its 46 members, 18 were doctors.

  In December 1923, members of the alliance, including Chiang, were charged with violations of the security laws. Among the 18 prosecuted, six were doctors. Thirteen were imprisoned -- Chiang himself receiving the longest sentence of 144 days.

  In 1931, Chiang died of typhoid at the age of 41. He was given a public funeral attended by some 5000 people. The Japanese authorities deployed large numbers of police to prevent a potential riot.

  Successors to the tradition

  The Southern Taiwan Society was established in Kaoshiung last July. It aims to monitor and speak out on political, educational, environmental and cultural issues and to guard "Taiwanese values." Its members are mostly medical doctors, lawyers, scholars, pastors, musicians, and social activists. Its primary goal is to push for educational reform and the restructuring of the central and regional legislatures.

  The group aims to create departments of Taiwanese studies in universities. In addition, the society aims to relocate part of the central government to southern Taiwan and give a greater voice to southern Taiwanese.

  The Central Taiwan Society was established in November last year. In June this year, the Northern Taiwan Society announced its formation and the Eastern Taiwan Society was launched last month.

  Chong has commented in a newspaper article that the spirit of these four clubs is the intellectual tradition whose torch was lit by the Taiwan Cultural Association; they aim to promote Taiwanese culture, and to serve as a voice on political, economic, educational, cultural, environmental and medical issues.

  Attracting particular prominence, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) both attended the launching in Taipei of the Northern Taiwan Society.

  Conformists versus reformists

  Despite its tragic but brave past, some still argue that the medical profession in Taiwan is more conformist than reformist.

  "Since, during both Japanese rule and KMT rule, medical doctors benefited from the system in terms of job security, wealth and social status, most doctors in fact played collaborative roles with the rulers. They were not revolutionary or reformist at all. The stereotype of medical doctors as social activists has its origins in a tiny few like Chang and Lai, who represented a small minority in the circle," said Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), professor of Taiwanese history at National Taiwan University and vice chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs.

  Tseng agrees with Wu but contends that the role of members of the medical profession in the reformist movement is still of particular significance.

  "Although the number of social advocates as a proportion of all medical professionals was not particularly high, one mustn't forget that medical students were a major driving force in the association. The involvement of medical doctors in cultural fields cannot be ignored," Tseng said.

  It is true that many big names in Taiwanese literature had a medical background. Wu Shin-rong (吳新榮, 1906 to 1967), for instance, was another icon of Taiwanese literature. Tseng himself is a highly regarded poet who has won many national literary prizes.

  Tseng, however, pays particular tribute to his predecessors during Japanese rule, many of whom were killed by the KMT during the infamous 228 Incident of 1947, or the "White Terror" era which followed.

  The 228 Incident occurred two years after the Japanese withdrew and Taiwan was taken over by the KMT. It involved a crackdown on an uprising against corrupt and oppressive Chinese rule, which saw tens of thousands of members of Taiwan's political, cultural and intellectual elite and other innocent civilians executed by secret police.

  Medical accomplices

  "Moreover, during martial law, imposed by the KMT, many doctors served as accomplices, just as some did in the Japanese era," Tseng said.

  According to a book by Chen Yong-sing (陳永興), a psychiatrist, former legislator and also a social activist, it may have been the Hsu Chang Event (許強, 1913 to 1950) that sounded the death knell of the medical profession's noble tradition. Chen's book, A History of the Development of Medicine in Taiwan (台灣醫療發展史), was published on the 72nd anniversary of the association's founding.

  Hsu Chang was the head of the third department of internal medicine at NTU hospital and an outspoken leftist. He was arrested and executed in 1950 for organizing a reading club suspected by the KMT of colluding with the Chinese communists.

  Lee Cheng-yuan (李鎮源, born in 1915), a leading expert on venomous snakes and a classmate and colleague of Hsu at NTU medical school, witnessed the way in which the White Terror struck fear throughout the medical profession, destroying its morale.

  Currently undergoing hospital treatment, Lee was unavailable to tell the story as he remembers it, but his wife recalls what happened. "He [Lee] called the president [of NTU] several times as he tried to find a way to rescue Hsu. At the beginning, the president said he [Hsu] should be all right. But later, the president told my husband that things had gone wrong," Lee's wife said.

  Having tried but failed to rescue Hsu through various channels, Lee busied himself with his scientific research, maintaining a silence on political matters for decades. In 1991, however, he broke that silence and led the "100 Action League" (一百行動聯盟) to pressure the authorities to abolish Article 100 of the Criminal Code and the annual National Day military parade. Under Article 100, the authorities were entitled to charge with sedition any person suspected of a mere intent to overthrow the regime.

  In 1992, Lee founded the Taiwan Medical Professionals Alliance (台灣醫界聯盟) to speak out on matters of concern to doctors and re-establish their activist role.

  Tseng, Chong, and Wu are members of the alliance. Wu and Tseng were particularly active in the opposition movement during the KMT's rule.

  Huang of the Eastern Taiwan Society does not share quite the same background in terms of political involvement. He seems more religious than politically-oriented, with a strong American academic and cultural background after living in the US for more than 20 years. He is something of a modern legend in Taiwan, having served as medical advisor to former US president Ronald Reagan before returning to Taiwan to serve the disadvantaged in Hualien.

  Gap to fill

  Eighty years after the formation of the Taiwan Culture Association, Taiwan is a democracy ruled by native Taiwanese. Why should it continue to develop Taiwanese consciousness and a Taiwanese identity?

  "The more we are educated, the more we are poisoned. In Taiwan, we receive a China-oriented education without knowing our own land and history. We are still under colonial rule. Over the past decades our predecessors have pursued political liberalization, without concerning themselves with human issues. Our task is to fill the cultural gap that our predecessors failed to fill," Tseng concluded.
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