He was once a radical dissident who believed in violence and terrorism. But now he is a strong believer in non-violence and vows to spend the rest of his life promoting world peace.
He was once a politician who enjoyed a substantial amount of power and public resources. But now he has decided to give up public office because he believes he can do more as a civilian.
After publishing his first comic book at age 14, he was seen as a talented up- and-coming cartoonist. He later became one of the nation's bravest political cartoonists, daring to challenge the authoritarian KMT regime during the martial law period.
He is DPP lawmaker Chien Hsi-chieh, better known as Jan by his friends in political circles.
Over the past six years as a lawmaker, Chien has been instrumental in pushing through legislation including the five-day workweek, the reduction of working hours, the curtailing of compulsory military service and the adoption of legislation permitting alternative military service.
Now Chien plans to devote himself full time to an organization he co-founded last year called the Peacetime Foundation, seeking to promote peace and the ideals of Taiwan's civil society around the world.
As a democratic crusader during the KMT era, Chien helped organize a number of important public events, including the summoning of over 1 million people across the nation the night before the 2000 presidential election to show their support for Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
A peaceful demonstration he helped to organize on Sep. 24, 1991 was designed to pressure then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to abolish article 100 of the Criminal Code, which was used to crack down on dissidents and required sentences of a minimum of seven-years to anyone the government considered a threat to national security.
In his recently released autobiography, No Regrets: A Man with Actions in a Time of Turmoil (無悔: 劇變時代的行動者), Chien said that his decision to bow out from the political limelight has a lot to do with his disappointment with politics.
"It genuinely upsets me when I see people with whom I fought for the most sublime of goals turn their attention to the pursuit of power for power's sake -- and when younger politicians have no role models to look up to and emulate," he said.
A turning point
Born in 1947 to a family of 10 in the little town of Tienchung in Chunghua County, Chien early on showed an acute interest in comic books and puppet shows.
Two of his childhood dreams were to become a cartoonist and a Chinese opera singer. One of those dreams came true when at age 14 he published his first comic book, The Sun of Silence (
On Feb. 28, 1980, the life of the young artist took a dramatic turn when Chien's two daughters complained to his mother-in-law that they were terrified for their own safety after seeing a news report about the brutal murder of twin sisters on television.
They were referring to the deaths of the twin daughters and the mother of former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
An unidentified killer broke into Lin's house and stabbed his then 60-year-old mother and his three daughters.
His eldest daughter, then 9 years old, was fortunate enough to survive. His mother and seven-year-old twin daughters, however, did not.
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