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Missionary work aided
democracy movement
By Peng Ming-min “^©ś±Ó
For centuries, Christian missionaries have identified with Taiwan and dedicated
their lives to this land. They became closely involved with the people and
although there were not many of them, the influence of their actions on
Taiwanese society has been far-reaching, even extending to our dietary habits.
At the start of the 20th century, my grandfather worked in a kitchen for
Christian missionaries, where he saw them drink a glass of fruit juice before
breakfast every morning. This confused him at first, but after a while he picked
up the habit, making him possibly the first Taiwanese to do so. When my mother
was a young girl, she lived at an elementary school run by female missionaries.
When the girls living there first tried tomatoes, they thought they smelt and
tasted strange, but later on they took a liking to them, making them the
probably the first group of young Taiwanese females to develop a taste for
tomatoes.
There are many great stories about missionaries in Taiwan that are both moving
and admirable. Some took great risks to help Taiwan democratize, but their
contributions have been largely forgotten.
During the White Terror era, the families of political prisoners felt a sense of
shame and inferiority, and many of the political prisoners were rejected and
kept at arms length by friends and relatives. They were humiliated and isolated
without any help and had a hard time surviving.
This was a miserable state of affairs that nobody wanted to acknowledge and it
was only a handful of missionaries that expressed true sympathy and compassion
for their plight. Those missionaries raised money from around the world and
privately helped the political prisoners. My mother participated in this work at
a time when such behavior was a serious crime with terrible consequences if
discovered.
Missionaries also faced other problems. First, their own governments were
generally opposed to their citizens getting involved in other countries”¦
politics, especially on the side of dissidents or political prisoners. Second,
the church headquarters in the missionaries”¦ home countries tended to side with
the stance of their government. Finally, there has always been debate within
Christianity about how to deal with violence. Pacifists believe violence should
not be used in any circumstance, while others believe that violence is sometimes
justified.
Taiwanese dissidents viewed the Martial Law era as an organized and systematic
form of violence and when the missionaries saw how dissidents were arrested,
tortured, interrogated and put to death, many of them agreed that violence was
necessary to combat the government.
While helping the dissidents, missionaries essentially gave tacit permission for
the use violence. In doing so, they not only went against the policies of their
home countries, they also went against their respective church headquarters and
make a very tough theological decision. There is no doubt that they came to this
decision only after thorough deliberation.
Even more moving is the fact that these missionaries were subjected to
unreasonable condemnation from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the
governments of their own countries, as well as unfair treatment. However, they
never complained.
After Taiwan”¦s democratization, they remained humble about their contributions.
Some of these individuals have passed away, while others are unwilling to
discuss their role. Others believe that Asians are more concerned with spiritual
matters, while Westerners are more interested in material life. However, the way
I see it, Westerners have a much higher level of spiritual cultivation than many
Asians.
Peng Ming-min is a former senior political adviser to the president.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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