Taiwan Today

January 21 was an epoch-making day in the political history of free China. On this day, a woman doctor won a mayoral race along with 311 other successful candidates in cities and townships of Tai­wan. She is Dr. Hsu Shih-hsien, 59, of Chiayi, a city of 220,000 population in central Taiwan and one of the largest lumber processing centers of the island.

Before Dr. Hsu, Taiwan had one woman town chief. She was Miss Lin Hsueh-mei of Sanhsia, a farm town of 35,000 population 22 miles southwest of Tai­pei. A school teacher, Miss Lin was elected in May of 1960.

In the January election, Dr. Hsu got 37,889 votes, 4,678 more than her male opponent, Tu Teh-chi. He is a school inspector of the Chiayi County Govern­ment Dr. Hsu was to head. She campaigned on a platform of elevating the status of the city to provin­cial level. Many voters agreed that this is the practical way to modernize the city. Under the jurisdiction of the county government, Chiayi must contribute nearly five-sixths of its tax revenues to the support of satellite towns and villages. If the status is elevated, the municipal treasury will be richer by seven times, including some subsidies from the Provincial Govern­ment.

To Dr. Hsu, politics is not terra incognita. She has been a member of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly for four terms since April of 1951. She is outspoken and eloquent.

Before entering politics, she had held such posi­tions as principal of the Provincial Chiayi Girls' High School and chairman of the Chiayi Women's Associa­tion. She established a number of charity organizations.

Dr. Hsu was born as the youngest child of a wealthy family in Tainan, the old capital of Taiwan. She has a brother and a sister. Her father died when she was 11. The children were supported by the mother.

Though educated under the Japanese, Dr. Hsu can speak and write Chinese fluently. "The credit must go to my parents," she said. Despite Japanese prohibi­tions, her scholar-father taught his children the Chinese classics and never allowed them to speak Japanese at home. After the father's death, the children continued their Chinese lessons with a neighbor in the evening.

Miss Hsu excelled at physics and mathematics while a student at Tainan Second Girls' High School. She was a tennis champion and was elected president of the student council. But she was bad at housework. "Whenever I used a needle," Dr. Hsu recalled, "I al­ways pricked my fingers."

Miss Hsu wanted to study law. In view of her talent for science, however, her teachers encouraged her to take a medical course. "Had it not been for the Japanese restrictions on women's professions," she said, "I would never have gone to medical college."

Miss Hsu went to Tokyo with her mother in 1925. She was 17. Among 600 candidates for Tokyo Women's Medical College, she was the only Taiwanese. She got top marks in physics and mathematics and was admitted with 99 others.

She was graduated with honors on New Year's Day in 1930. Returning to Tainan the next day, she stayed there for three years. She worked as an intern in gynecology at the Tainan Hospital for a year and half, then established her own Shih Hsien Hospital.

In the winter of 1932, one of her patients in­troduced her to Chang Chin-tung, a native of Chiayi and then a medical student of the Taihoku Imperial University (now National Taiwan University). Their first and only date took place at the Kai Yuan Temple, a memorial building in the old capital dedicated to Cheng Cheng-kung (Koxinga), who expelled the Dutch from the island in the mid-17th century. Thereafter they exchanged letters frequently but did not see each other again until their marriage on April 16, 1933. A week later, the newlyweds went to Japan to work for degrees at the Kyushu Imperial University.

In 1940, the Changs returned to Taiwan with their degrees and three daughters. Since then they have been living at Chiayi. In 1941 they set up the Sun Tien Tang Hospital near their house. Dr. Chang took care of internal medicine and pediatrics, Dr. Hsu of gynecology, obstetrics and surgery. Before dawn on the day their clinic opened - February 18, 1941 - the Changs were wakened by a loud knock on the door. An injured man was carried in by relatives. Dr. Hsu didn't have time to put on her white gown. She at­tended him in pajamas with her husband assisting. As their first patient, he was treated free.

Since Dr. Hsu was first elected to the Provincial Assembly 17 years ago, she has rarely had time to see patients. However, the Chang-Hsu 36-bed hospital is still one of the largest hospitals in the city. Dr. Chang now is a surgeon, too.

When Taiwan was retroceded to the Republic of China in 1945, local leaders chose Dr. Hsu to take over the Chiayi Girls' High School from the Japanese principal. She resigned from the post the following year when she was elected to the Chiayi City Council. Her husband had encouraged her to run for that public office.

Dr. Hsu sought to become Chiayi magistrate two years later but was defeated. Then she tried for a seat in the Taiwan Provisional Provincial Assembly an1 failed again.

Voters turned in her favor the next time. She ran for the first Taiwan Provincial Assembly in the spring of 1951 and subsequently was re-elected three times.

In administrative terms, the Chiayi City Govern­ment is less important than the Provincial Assembly. Relatives and friends were surprised when she decided to seek the mayoralty. Asked why she should seek a lesser position, Dr. Hsu said: "I'll run not for fame but to give more direct service to my hometown."

Chiayi once was a municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the Taiwan Provincial Government. It was placed under the Chiayi County Government in the 1951 redemarcation of administrative areas. That was the year Dr. Hsu was elected to the Provincial Assembly. She has fought for resumption of Chiayi's municipal status ever since.

Chiayi is known for its Tropic of Cancer marker. The line passes through Taiwan just south of the city. From Chiayi a mountain railroad climbs to 7,500-foot Alishan (Mt. Ali) and carries cypress and other logs down the mountain. Many torii for Japanese shinto shrines were made of Alishan cypress before World War II.

There are two institutions of higher learning in Chiayi. The Provincial Chiayi Agricultural College, one of the oldest farm schools in Taiwan, is noted for its department of forestry. The other is the Wu Feng College of Commerce. A private school founded in 1965, Wu Feng was named after an 18th-century official who sacrificed his life to persuade Tsou ab­origine tribesmen to abandon headhunting. (For details of the Wu Feng story, see page 23.)

The city has an agricultural experiment station, which is a branch of the Taiwan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Research is aimed at the improvement of tropical plants and vegetables. Principal Chiayi products are longan, mangoes and oranges. Preserved fruits are exported to Southeast Asia.

Compared with many other cities of Taiwan, the progress of Chiayi has been slow. Lumber is the only sizable industry. Some visitors have complained that Chiayi is dirty. Fang Huei-lung, from whom Dr. Hsu took over the municipal seal March 1, said he couldn't do anything about it.

Mayor Hsu believes otherwise. The budget will be increased as soon as the municipal status is elevated. "I can't be bullied by the City Council," she said. "I was a member of it and have been in the Provincial Assembly for a long time."

The new mayor looks younger than her 59 years and is in excellent health. One male voter said he supported her because "she is old enough for the job". Shortly after the election, Dr. Hsu paid a courtesy call on Tsai Lao-shou, the speaker of the Chiayi City Council. Tsai said the council would do everything possible to help her raise the city's status and begin the process of modernization.

Her first goal is a city clean-up. With nearly a quarter of a million people, Chiayi has only two garbage trucks to dispose of 80 tons of refuse daily. She plans to buy three more trucks.

An ideal city, Mayor Hsu thinks, would have New York's Fifth Avenue for shopping, Park Avenue for living, a cultural center to compare with Columbia University and some of Copenhagen's boulevards.

As a member of the Provincial Assembly, she was away from home most of the time. The assembly was located in Taipei until 1955 and then was moved to Taichung, about two hours' drive from Chiayi. Since the January election, she has had more time for home.

Like most older Taiwanese wives, she rarely calls her husband by his given name. She addresses him as "Dr. Chang" and says "he knows more about me than I do about myself". Dr. Chang, 60, is active in Chiayi civic affairs. He formerly was chairman of the Rotary Club.

Dr. Hsu gave birth to two sons and four daughters. The boys died in childhood. The daughters are Kuei­-yin, 33, a gynecologist; Po-yin, 32, an architect; Wen­-yin, 30, a pediatrician; and Po-ya, 24, a senior at Kao­hsiung Medical College. All except the youngest are married.

Mayor-Dr. Hsu doesn't want to see her daughters take part in politics. "Like rugby," she explained, "politics is customarily reserved for men. In this case, women must work twice as hard as men. I'm a lucky woman. But I don't think that in politics my daughters would be as lucky as I have been."

However, the youngest daughter seems interested in public affairs. She resembles her mother as a medi­cal student and eloquent speaker. "If she is really interested in politics, I won't dissuade her," Dr. Hsu said. "But I'll tell her all the difficulties she'll have to overcome."

The Changs have traveled widely. They have no language difficulties. Both speak Japanese, Eng­lish and German. However, they have not had op­portunity to travel together. "Each time we planned to travel," complained Dr. Chang, "she had to go to a meeting."

Although a woman of wealth, she likes the simple and eschews luxurious hotels. She stayed at the hostel provided by the Provincial Assembly during legislative sessions.

Dr. Hsu calls herself an optimist. "Life is short," she said, "but it is long enough for happy memories, if you use it properly." To friends and patients, she likes to quote a Western maxim: "The best physicians in the world are Drs. Quiet, Diet and Merryman." She also advises: "Peace of mind, new interests and outdoor exercise make you look more beautiful than plastic surgery."

Dr. Hsu's success is a reflection of the interest of Chinese women in public affairs. A sizable number of women hold seats in representative organs of the Republic of China at various levels. A woman sits in the Council of Grand Justices and another in the Supreme Court. One of the two English-language newspapers in Taiwan is published by a woman. The nursing department of the National Defense Medical Center is headed by a woman general.

The emancipation of women began after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. In the last half a century, the social status of free Chinese women has been elevated from one of backwardness to one of the highest in the Asian region. Dr. Hsu Shih-hsien will be the first to attest to that. Her own career is the proof of the Chinese woman's new freedom.