Twenty-one years ago, I telephoned former Presidential Office adviser Huang Tien-lin (黃天麟) to invite him to write an opinion piece for the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
At the time, Huang had just retired as chairman of First Commercial Bank and I had just been hired by the newspaper. Huang later told me that the invitation marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life as a writer.
I met Huang in 1979, when he was a manager in the bank’s overseas department and I was a journalist at the Chinese-language United Daily News.
In February that year, a fraud case at the bank’s Zhongshan branch had sent shockwaves through society and I conscientiously went about interviewing Huang for the paper. He later told me that he was deeply impressed with my fair and impartial report.
Huang graduated from National Taiwan University’s Department of Economics and drew on the copious experience he had gained at the bank as the basis for his writing. He possessed an extraordinary amount of knowledge and insight, and understood economics and finance from both a theoretical and practical standpoint.
During the 1990s, Huang greatly contributed to the debate over Taiwan’s economic and trade policy toward China, providing concrete research and analysis. He vehemently opposed then-Democratic Progressive Party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang’s (許信良) “boldly go west” (大膽西進) initiative and stressed the importance of Taiwan maintaining its autonomy and continuing development. From the moment he began writing for the paper, I felt a tingle of excitement to be in the privileged position as the first person to set eyes on his exquisitely worded missives.
After my retirement from the Economic Daily News, I did not completely lose this privilege. Before he sadly passed away last month at the age of 93, I still enjoyed an advance reading of Huang’s regular articles for the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Born in 1929 during the Japanese colonial era, Huang belonged to the generation of Taiwanese who were schooled under the Japanese education system — also known as the “Doosan” generation (多桑世代). Huang’s entire life represented the unique qualities of Taiwan’s “greatest generation.”
Influenced by the environment of the era he grew up in, Huang was proficient in his mother tongue of Hoklo, commonly known as Taiwanese, as well as Japanese, Mandarin and English. Languages are much more than a means of expression and tools for communication; they are a key to unlock one’s horizons and gain a broader understanding of the world and its myriad cultures.
In addition to Huang’s economic and financial expertise, his English skills were sufficient enough to be made manager of First Commercial Bank’s overseas branch in Guam, before going on to establish and run the bank’s London branch. Huang also served as chairman of the bank’s operations in California.
Later on in his career, Huang used his mastery of the Japanese language to promote cultural and economic exchanges between Taiwan and Japan, and received decorations from the Japanese government, including the Order of the Rising Sun, (third class, gold rays with neck ribbon) for his contributions toward enhancing Taiwan-Japan relations.
In addition to his regular opinion articles, Huang also published no fewer than 12 books.
Even more importantly, as a member of the Doosan generation, Huang’s multilingual, multicultural upbringing broadened his horizons and allowed him to continually absorb a wide variety of new skills, knowledge and information from abroad.
During his lifetime, Huang also experienced the end of one colonial government and the imposition of another. All throughout, he maintained a belief in Taiwan’s right to autonomy and actively worked to achieve this aim. He helped formulate former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) “no haste, be patient” (戒急用忍) policy, opposed the integration of Taiwan’s economy with China’s, and worked hard to ensure that Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers maintained roots in Taiwan.
Huang was also an advocate for the rejuvenation of Taiwan-centric values and culture. More than a quarter-century since the implementation of Lee’s policy, over two-thirds of the electorate today view it positively — a testament to the two men’s incredible foresight.
Huang is a shining example of the Doosan generation, whose education was steeped in the twin ideals of public duty and selflessness. During the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Huang served as a Presidential Office adviser for seven years.
Huang donated his entire salary during this time to charitable causes, including establishing a scholarship foundation at his alma mater, Magong Elementary School, in Penghu County, and another at the National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School, where his mother used to teach.
In more recent years, Huang continued to give back to society, serving as president of the Taiwan-Japan Cultural Economic Association and director-general of the Taiwan Nation Alliance. Throughout his 93 years of life, Huang consistently put his country and its people first and continued to write until his death.
My friend will be sorely missed. His extraordinary achievements and prodigious contributions serve as a model for all Taiwanese, now and for generations to come.
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.
Translated by EDWARD JONES
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS