Taiwan Today

Ever since the capture of the mainland by the Communists in 1949, the Chinese Government in Taiwan has endeavoured, through thick and thin, to carry on its gigantic task of resisting Communist aggression with an undaunted spirit. In these years of turmoil, China has kept her normal relations with free nations and continues to promote international goodwill and cooperation. It therefore falls within my prov­ince to foster a genuine spirit of mutual understanding through exchange of informa­tion and free flow of culture between China and other nations, and I take the liberty of presenting herewith a picture of our international cultural relations during recent three years.

I. China's Relations With UNESCO

China was the first country to suggest to the San Francisco Conference, in May, 1945 the idea of international cultural and educa­tional collaboration in the United Nations. In November of the same year, China was very happy to send a delegation to the Constituent Conference of UNESCO held in London and I was designated by the Chinese Government as one of the delegates. When the Chinese people read in the UNESCO Constitution that "the purpose of the Organization is to con­tribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through educa­tion, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law, and for the human rights and the fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion by the Charter of the United Nations" they thought that their age-long dream of a lasting peace, as advocated by Confucius, would now come true. They were jubilant, looking forward to the birth of a new era in which the welfare of mankind will be promoted and its sufferings will be alleviated.

The lofty idea of UNESCO, however, has been pitifully frustrated by Communist aggres­sion and the hope of the freedom-loving and peace-loving peoples has likewise been shattered. To-day human beings all over the world live in constant fear, a prehension and suspense, in fact the world is in greater tension than it was on the eve of the two world wars. In Korea the armed forces of sixteen states have been fighting the Korean and Chinese Communists for almost two and a half years without any end in sight. Yet the Chinese government and people are still pinning their hopes on the United Nations and UNESCO, believing that International Communism, be­ing opposed to human nature and science, cannot last very long and that liberty and democracy will ultimately conquer tyranny and dictatorship while education and culture will prevail over barbarity and brute force. Despite her financial stringency, the Chinese Govern­ment has managed to fulfill her obligation by making a token contribution of five thousands pounds sterling to the Organization each year. It keeps on sending delegations to UNESCO conferences. The Chinese delegation in 1950 was headed by Dr. Wen Yuan-ning, Chinese Ambassador to Greece, and in 1951 I was appointed by the Chinese Government as the Chief Delegate to attend the sixth session of the General Conference of UNESCO. In its fifth session, delegates from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, India, Burma, Yugoslavia and the United Kingdom attempted to unseat the Chinese delegates and replace them with the delegates from the Peiping regime. But their effort proved unfruitful and the Conference endorsed the right of Chinese representation by a vote of 29 to 4, with the rest of the countries abstaining. The question of Chinese representa­tion, however, was again brought up before the sixth session of the General Conference by the Indian delegate, Mr. Radhakrishnan, who wantonly attacked the Chinese Government in Taiwan as ineligible for a seat in the Con­ference inasmuch as it controlled only eight­-million people and who asked that the Chinese Communist regime should be invited to attend the Conference. Instantly, I lodged a strong protest and refuted his argument along two lines. First, I pointed out that we were very much perplexed at the suggestion of an Indian scholar, who served as Professor of Oriental Culture in Oxford University, to invite to this world wide organization the Chinese Communist regime, which was working hard to wipe out the traditional culture of the Chinese people. Secondly, I pointed out that the status of the Chinese Communists was nothing but a "puppet regime" or a "colonial government of Soviet Russia" and, as such, it could never represent China. To cite a concrete instance to rebut Mr. Radhakrishnan's statement, I further men­tioned the Council of Allied Ministers of Educa­tion, the predecessor of UNESCO, which was held in London during the war-time and attended by delegates mostly from those countries whose territories had been under German occupation and whose governments had moved to London. The question of representation of these govern­ments was never raised in its meetings. As the Chinese Government to-day continued to exercise its powers on its own territory, we failed to understand the reason why the Republic of China could not be represented by its legal government in Taiwan.

Prior to my debate with the Indian delegate, I had taken the floor to deliver an address before the Conference, enumerating the criminal acts committed by the Communists on the mainland through class struggles and liquida­tions, and presenting incontrovertible facts in relation to the wanton destruction of traditional Chinese culture, education and ethics by the Communists. My speech convinced the delegates of most free nations that the Chinese Com­munist regime was working against the very principles for which UNESCO was established, and they expressed their unfeigned sympathy with the Chinese Government in its endeavour to resist aggression. As a result of my strong protest and my speech delivered before the delegates, the Conference endorsed the Chinese representation by a vote of 37 (including Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Pakistan which have recognized the Com­munist regime) to 3, with 5 abstaining and 13 absent. Once again, China emerged victorious in its fight against the malicious attempts of Soviet Russia and satellite states to unseat China in international conferences.

Meantime, China was facing another dif­ficult problem in the Conference. In the first meeting, the chairman announced that China was deprived of its voting right as a result of its failure to pay contributions to UNESCO for a period of more than two years. It may be mentioned here that before I attended the conference, I had written a letter early in May 1951 to the Executive Board of UNESCO, explaining that China was financially unable to pay its contributions to UNESCO owing to the loss of the mainland and requesting that the provision in the Constitution (Art IV C 8c) that "the General Conference may nevertheless permit such a member state to vote, if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member nation." be applied in the case of China. I brought up this problem again before the Con­ference and requested all member - nations to reconsider China's case and allow it to vote. India and Great Britain opposed my proposal but delegates from fourteen nations namely the U. S., France, Brazil, the Philippines, Cuba, the Netherlands, Greece, Australia, New Zea­land, Columbia, Costa Rica, Liberia, Bolivia and Venezuela spoke in favor of China. The voting right of China was finally approved by a vote of 26 to 10. In return, I expressed my deep appreciation to the Conference for its just and righteous decision.

At the time of this writing the 7th session of the General Conference was being held at Paris. China again sent a delegation with Dr. Li Shuhwa, a former Minister of Education, as its head. The question of China's representation was never raised while China's right to vote was approved on Nov. 20th by a vote of 34 to 8.

Ever since its establishment, UNESCO has consistently extended its assistance to China in the building-up of her post-war education. In 1950, UNESCO donated to China book coupons and scientific equipment coupons to the value of US$29,000, which were distributed by the Ministry of Education to the colleges in Taiwan. In addition to these, newsprints, valued at US$21,000, were given to China by UNESCO. The Provincial Department of Educa­tion has made good use of these newsprints to print primary school textbooks for free distribu­tion to students. Further assistance in 1951 con­sisted of US53,450 worth of scientific equipment which, upon its arrival, will be distributed by the Ministry of Education to Taiwan Teachers' College and Taiwan College of Agriculture. Regular donation of books, pamphlets, and leaflets published by UNESCO itself together with the grant of one scholarship each year in 1950 and 1951 were also among the features of UNESCO's assistance to China.

In October 1951, the Ministry of Education requested UNESCO to give China its technical assistance in the form of technical training of industrial and agricultural personnel, scientific equipment and audio-visual aids. UNESCO, after considering our request, promptly referred the problem of technical training of personnel to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and International Labour Organiza­tion for study and action. Meantime on May 16, 1952 it signed an agreement with the Chinese Government in Paris on audio-visual aids. The agreement and its annex provides that (1) UNESCO send an expert on the produc­tion and utilization of audio-visual apparatuses to Taiwan to assist Taiwan Teachers' College in implementing the program of audio-visual education and in improving the method of teaching, (2) UNESCO supply China with audio-visual apparatuses valued at US$10,OOO and provide a grant of US$5,000 for further research abroad by Chinese scholars in the field of audio-visual education, and (3) the Chinese Government provide the said expert with an office and lodging as well as traveling expenses during his stay in Taiwan. The agreement is valid for a period of two years. The expert of UNESCO, Dr. Overend, arrived in Taiwan by the end of October and the work is being started.

Among other activities conducted by the Chinese Government relating to UNESCO may be mentioned the following:

1. China designated Dr. Tsiang Ting-fu as delegate to participate in the signing of an Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials at Lake Suc­cess, N. Y. on November 22, 1950. This in­ternational agreement was adopted in the fifth session of the General Conference and provides that all contracting parties are to exempt such imported materials from customs duties.

2. China sent Dr. Chien Shi-liang, then Dean of Studies of National Taiwan University, to attend the International Universities Conference held in Nice, France, in December 1950, sponsored by the Interim Committee of the International Universities Bureau.

3. Pursuant to a resolution adopted by the fifth session of the General Conference of UNESCO, an international committee was set up early in 1952 to attend to the voluminous work of compiling a Cultural and Scientific History of Mankind, with ten persons engaged as contributing editors and sixty-six persons as correspondents. Upon finding that none of Chinese scholars appeared on the list, I lodged a protest with the chairman of the Committee, Professor Caneiro, stating that it was absolutely unfair to deprive the Chinese of the privilege to participate in this type of work inasmuch as China had made great contributions to­wards human civilization. With quick response, UNESCO decided in March 1952 to invite Dr. Hu Shih as a contributing editor.

4. At the request of UNESCO, China designated Dr. Kuo Yu-shou as representative to attend the fifteenth International Conference on Public Education held in Geneva in June 1952. The subjects discussed concerned women's education and the method of teaching science. Up-to-date data concerning these two subjects in Taiwan were furnished by the Chinese delegate.

Recently, the Mutual Security Agency has appropriated funds for the program of educa­tional cooperation between China and the Unit­ed States. This program has crystallized into definite agreements signed between National Taiwan University and Columbia University, Taiwan Teachers' College and Pennsylvania State College, Taiwan College of Engineering and Perdu University, for cooperation in the field of medicine, vocational education, and engineering, including aid in books, equipment and the exchange of professors.

II. Chinese Students and Scholars Abroad

The first batch of Chinese students sent to study in the United States went more then eighty years ago and the number kept on increasing after the establishment of the Chinese Republic, having one time reached the record of 4,000 per year. Towards the end of the Ching Dynasty many students went to Japan to study, at one time the number exceeding 15,000. After World War I, as a result of the currency depreciation in Europe, thousands of students went to Europe to pursue higher studies, especially to France. After the Sino­Japanese War broke out in 1937, owing to financial stringency and blockade of the Chinese coast line by Japan, few students had the opportunity to go abroad. Towards the end of the war, taking advantage of the Lend-Lease Aid of the U. S., the Chinese Government sent a batch of 300 self-supporting students to study abroad whose foreign exchange was furnished by the Government at the official rate and another batch of 200 to study in Great Britain and the U. S. under scholarship grants. After V-J Day, 150 government-sponsor­ed students and 1,900 self-supporting students were also sent abroad to study.

During recent years, the Chinese Government, due to shortage of foreign exchange, has suspended the sending of students abroad. Under these circumstances, students who wish to study abroad have to provide their own expenses or to secure full-scholarships from foreign institutions.

Before 1949, a student desiring to study abroad was required to serve two years in the field of his specialized subject after his gradua­tion from a college or university and to pass satisfactorily the examination given by the Ministry of Education. In that year as the Government moved to Canton, the Ministry of Education revised the above requirements so that any student who had completed a two-year study in a college or university was allowed to go abroad on condition that he had succeeded in obtaining admission to a foreign university and was either able to provide his own expenses during his stay abroad or had secured a scholarship. It may be recalled here that early in 1948, the Catholic Mission, with the approval of the Chinese Government, granted four-year full scholarships to a group of seventy high school graduates and in 1949 another group of one hundred high school graduates for further studies in different Catholic colleges in the United States. To meet this situation, the Ministry of Education, with the approval of the Executive Yuan, adopted regulations early in 1950 to give those students who had obtained four-year full scholarships a selective test so as to ascertain their fitness for studying abroad. Students who failed in this test were not allowed to go abroad. Four tests of this kind were given in 1950, 1951 and 1952.

At present the Chinese Government is contemplating to raise the required standard of students going abroad to a higher level. In the future only college or university graduates who have satisfactorily passed an examination given by the Ministry of Education will be allowed to study abroad, no matter whether they are self-supporting or scholarship students. During the recent three years, the Ministry of Education has approved the application of 564 students to study abroad, including both self-supporting and scholarship students. 232 high school graduates who obtained four-year full scholarships and passed the required test also had the permission of the Ministry to pursue their studies abroad. Most of the students went to the United States, with a few going to Canada, France and the Philippines. Besides, the American State Department requested the Mutual Security Agency and the Joint Com­mission on Rural Reconstruction in Taiwan to select on its behalf a group of qualified college graduates and government employees to do research and field work in the United States. Thirty-six and thirty-nine persons were selected for this purpose in 1951 and 1952 respectively. The United Nations awarded eight fellowships and scholarships to Chinese students in the field of public administration and economic development in 1951, and thirty-two candidates have been selected for the current year by the Ministry of Education through competitive examination, subject to the final approval of the United Nations. The United Nations also grant­ed eight and ten fellowships in the field of social welfare to Chinese students in 1950 and 1951 respectively. The nineteen candidates select­ed for this purpose for the current year are awaiting the approval of the United Nations. According to our estimates in June 1952, there were approximately 4,500 Chinese students studying abroad, including 2,997 in the United States, 700 in Japan, 150 in France, 100 each in Great Britain and Italy, and the rest in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and Latin American countries.

Ever since the loss of the mainland to the Communists Chinese students studying abroad have been in miserable conditions. As govern­ment allowance has long been discontinued and their families have no way to remit money to them many of them have had to work either full-time or part-time to maintain their living. Those studying in the U. S. are more lucky because the American Congress has appropriated in the three years 1949, 1950 and 1951, US$10,­ 500,000 for the relief of Chinese students. Almost 3,000 Chinese students have applied and received such aid at one time or another and consequently completed their studies. Those who have graduated and are willing to return to China have been given free passage on American steamers by the State Department.

The Communist regime, in order to meet the need of technical experts, has since its establishment tried to induce Chinese students abroad to go back to the mainland to serve its cause. Through skilful propaganda the Chinese Communists have been telling Chinese students abroad that their political system is democratic and their economic achievements are marvelous. At first many Chinese students were fooled and went back after graduation. From Oct. 1949 when the so called "Central People's Gov­ernment" was proclaimed to the end of 1950 almost a thousand Chinese students returned of whom about seven hundred were from the U. S. As time went on and the appalling conditions on the mainland began to leak out Chinese students gradually understood the true characteristics of the Communist regime. The participa­tion of the Chinese Communists in the Korean war especially awakened Chinese students to the ruthlessly tyrannical rule by which the Communists were holding the mainland. As a result, in 1951 less than four hundred students returned to the mainland, while in 1952 up to the end of October the number is reduced to about one hundred.

The Chinese Government, on the other hand, has consistently offered facilities to Chinese students to return to Taiwan. While appreciat­ing the sincere effort of the government, they are apt to think that Taiwan is limited in space and is already saturated with talented people so that the situation, as it exists, does not promise much hope to find suitable posi­tions on this island. Hence they prefer to seek employment in the countries where they have studied. As the American Congress passed an act in April last year allowing Chinese students to remain in the States after their graduation, 2,400 of them are now staying in the U. S. and are working on farms and in factories, mines, schools, shops and private or government offices.

Beside the students, there are many Chinese scholars, technicians and experts staying abroad. For many years a number of Chinese scholars have been doing teaching or research work abroad. During World War II in spite of lack of communication facilities Great Britain and the U. S. invited Chinese scholars to give lectures in their universities. Both before and imme­diately after the loss of the mainland many scholars, technicians and experts who did not wish to live behind the Iron Curtain went abroad. During the last three years some Chinese professors have been invited by American or Japanese universities to give lectures. The China Foundation has also sent from 5 to 8 professors each year to do research in the U. S. The State Department selected 5 professors in 1951 and ten high school English teachers in 1952 to pursue advanced studies at the expense of the American Government. Consequently there are to-day more Chinese scholars, technicians and experts abroad than at any time in China's long history. Ninety-five percent of them (over 500) are in the U. S. They can be classified into three groups: (1) Those who are appointed by American colleges and universities as profes­sors, associate or assistant professors and lecturers or by academic institutions as research fellows. They number about 260. Some of them are teaching Chinese language, history, philosophy or culture but most of them are specialists in the fields of science and engineering. A few have made noteworthy contributions to the development of aeronautical engineering and research on atomic energy. (2) Those who hold fellowships offered by the State Department and consequently are doing works assigned to them by the Department. Their number is about 60. (3) Physicians or surgeons who are working or doing research work in public or private hospitals. Their number is about 200.

In the past Chinese universities, both public and private, usually engaged the services of a number of foreign professors. Even during World War II the Chinese Government invited American, British and Indian scholars to lecture in China. In the well-known Chinese universi­ties there were foreign students from Great Britain, the U. S., France. Japan and India. Now all these universities are in the hands of the Chinese Communists. To-day we have only 15 foreign professors (11 Americans, 2 Japanese, 1 German and 1 Austrian) and 12 foreign students (11 Koreans and 1 Japanese) in National Taiwan University.

The Chinese people as a nation have made great contributions to the culture and civiliza­tion of mankind. Yet the Chinese people have always adopted a broad-minded attitude with regard to culture so that they have never rejected any culture which is different from theirs. Chinese thought has been greatly affected by Buddhism since it was introduced into China in the Han Dynasty. During the last hundred years China has come into contact with the Western world and the Chinese people have been absorbing Western philosophy, science, political systems, and industrial civilization. Now the mainland is under Communist control and is shut off from Western ideas, but schools and colleges in Free China are learning Western principles, theories, culture and philosophy just as wholeheartedly as before. In Europe and America general interest in learning Chinese cul­ture has also been increasing. Important Chinese books, like the Four Books, the Five Classics, Lao-Tze, Chuan-Tze, Kwan-Tze Moh-Tze, Han- Hwei- Tze, Sze-Chi, Han-Su and other fa­mous literary works have been translated into Eng­lish, French and German. Recently departments or chairs of Chinese literature and philosophy have been established in noted universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, We hope that a new culture would emerge from the fusion of the two great cultures of China and the West. This is a long and difficult process but it certainly deserves our untiring efforts to achieve this goal.