Taiwan Church News

3342 Edition

March 14 - 20, 2016

Church Ministry

Tân Tì-hiông, First Martyr For Taiwan Independence, Is Honored At His Centenary Remembrance

In the afternoon on March 12, a meeting commemorative of the centenary birthday of MrTân Tì-hiông, the first martyr for Taiwan independence, was held at National Taiwan University Alumnus Complex. This is an assembly jointly organized by 10 pro-independence groups.

Prof Ted Lau, speaker of the Taiwanese National Congress, gave a brief introduction to the life of MrTân Tì-hiông, who was born in 1916 at Pingtung and became a Japanese diplomat stationed in Indonesia during WWII. After the war is over in 1945, Tân Tì-hiông help his Indonesian friends to fight for the independence from the colonial Dutch government. As a member of the founding fathers of Indonesia, Tân was even awarded a medal of honorary citizen by President Sukarno.

At the eruption of 228 massacre, Tân also gave his strongest support for this Taiwanese national revolution with his Indonesian comrades. But, due to the pro-China stance of the Indonesian authority, Tân was sent back to Japan. Since then, Tân turned his life and energy toward the independence movement of the Republic of Taiwan. In 1955, Tân was assigned as a South-Eastern Asia ambassador at large for the Republic of Taiwan and attended the First Asian-African Conference at Bandung.

Though Tân diplomatic expertise was greatly acknowledged, he was never a friend of KMT regime. Under the pressure of KMT, Tân was extradited back to Taiwan from Japan. (Another saying is that Tân was kidnapped by KMT back to Taiwan.) After a short period of release from prison, due to a continuous engagement in Taiwan independence movement, Tân was executed by KMT on 28th May, 1963.

Dr Chen Yong-hsin, former president of Lo-tung Catholic Hospital, urged Ping-tung County set up a commemorative museum for Mr Tân Tì-hiông. Carrying on the independent spirit of Tân Tì-hiông, Dr Chen also expected the foreign trade policy of Tsai Ing-wen's administration should aim at south-east Asia countries.

Translated by Peter Wolfe