Christians are making outsized contributions to the health and spiritual well-being of Taiwan society in excess of a relatively small representation in the country’s religious makeup.
Comprising less than 7 percent of the population, Christians occupy a high-profile position in Taiwan’s altruistic landscape. This is largely attributed to followers systematically spreading the Gospel through social work for over 150 years.
Missionaries arrived in Taiwan in 1625 with merchants from the Dutch East India Company. But Christianity did not take root until 1859 when three Spanish Dominican friars founded what later became Holy Rosary Cathedral in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City.
Cardinal Paul Yu Pin, archbishop of Nanking from 1946 till his death in 1978, is interred in a mausoleum on the Campus of Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei’s Xinchuang District.
Protestantism gained ground after James Laidlaw Maxwell of the English Presbyterian Mission came in 1865 to practice medicine and proselytize, followed by Canadian physician and Presbyterian missionary George Leslie MacKay seven years later in what is now New Taipei City’s Tamsui District.
According to Chen Fang-chung, an academic specializing in Taiwan’s Catholic history at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei, locals welcome the faith’s presence as devotees made significant contributions to society like setting up educational institutions. But believers left their most profound impact by establishing hospitals and social welfare organizations around the country, he said.
When Taiwan was still developing, Christians brought medical skills and donations from their home countries to build clinics, hospitals and facilities for the physically challenged, said Tang Sai-hung, former director of the Cardinal Tien Hospital branch in Yonghe District of New Taipei. This drastically improved quality of life for the people, he added.
A group of indigenous Amis tribal dancers take part in a Mass at the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conceptions in Taichung City, central Taiwan.
CTH was named after Tien Keng-hsin, the Roman Catholic Church’s first East Asian cardinal. He played an instrumental role in founding the hospital in the 1960s, following the lead of Maxwell and MacKay, who respectively established Sin Lau Hospital in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City—the first hospital practicing Western medicine in the country, and MacKay Clinic—the first such facility in northern Taiwan later renamed MacKay Memorial Hospital and relocated to Taipei.
Walter Wu, a senior preacher at Taipei Nan King East Road Christian Church, believes independent churches and large religious organizations can comfortably coexist. NKEC’s local management allows it to change with the times to address people’s needs, he said, citing the effectiveness of fellowship groups targeting a range of demographics including adolescents, couples, singles and single parents.
Yanshui Catholic Church in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City is revered for its circa 1950 architectural design inspired by elements of Taoist tradition.
Many beneficiaries are not aware NKEC is a religious institution, Wu said. But through the aid extended, these people come to know the love of God, he added.
Although Christians have contributed greatly to society, cultural barriers have hindered the faith’s spread among the local populace. One example is the Protestant denominations ban on the deep-rooted practice of ancestor worship.
Wu said Christians remain undeterred and continue to fulfil a duty to preach in every corner of the world. As long as the faithful remain devoted to helping others, people’s lives can be changed for the better, he added. (E) (By Oscar Chung)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw
(This article is adapted from Spreading the Word in the September / October 2020 issue of Taiwan Review. The Taiwan Review archives dating to 1951 are available online.)