Taiwan Church News
3489 Edition
January 7 – 13, 2019
Headline News

The Collected Works Of John Lai Endorsed As The Classic Writings Of Taiwan Church History

Reported by Chen Yi-fan

The Volume I & II of The Collected Works Of John Lai, jointly edited and published by National Museum of Taiwan History Museum, PCT Church History Committee under General Assembly Office and Taiwan Church Press, were formerly launched at the auditorium of Taiwan Church Press on 5th January 2019.

Many distinguished historians of Taiwan history, including Rev Dr Cheng Yang-en(Church History Prof of Taiwan Theological College and Seminary), Kaim Ang(Associate Fellow of Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica), Hsu Hsueh-chi(Director of Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica) and the family of John Lai, were invited to attend this significant book launch and endorsed the publication of The Collected Works Of John Lai as a precious witness to the Christian mission in Taiwan and a priceless testimony to Taiwan history.

Initiated via a video greeting, Elder John Lai introduced to the audience the first part(ie Volume I & II) of his collected works as 674 pieces of “Kau-hoe-su-oe”(Stories in Taiwan Church History) published in Taiwan Church News Weekly from 1988 to 2004; the second part of publication(yet to come) will cover his own Taiwan history studies, instead of citing the Chinese bibliographies only, with an epoch-breaking characteristic to utilize the English and Japanese literature since 1950s; the third part of his collected works will include his own memoirs, correspondences, personal records and etc.

As the readers of the renown column of “Kau-hoe-su-oe” might well known, the powerful insight of Elder John Lai’s stories of Taiwan church history was not only confined to his macro-historical observation but also in the details of daily lives of common folks: through recording the citizen’s lives experiences, inter-personal relationships and community networks, he accurately passed us an abundant treasure informing us about how the histories were changed, the memories formed and the faith witnessed in our critical past.

Rev Fang Lan-ting, President of Taiwan Church Press, expressed his thanks-giving to the related parties and so many people cooperating to deliver this peerless publication of The Collected Works Of John Lai. He also wished this monumental book launch of Elder John Lai’s seminal writings in Taiwan church history could wake up the young generation to treasure more on Taiwan’s history, culture and the land.

Translated by Peter Wolfe