The girls and their grandmother were not buried until Lin was released from jail in 1984. Fang and the surviving daughter moved to the US to start a new life soon after the mishap. In 1985, Lin joined his family in California, setting out on a four-year voyage of learning in the US, Europe and Japan.
The time abroad was an opportunity for him to heal his sorrow and to hone his talents to serve Taiwan in the future.
But he also developed different interests, for the family tragedy had provoked him to pursue eternal values as he grew disenchanted with the transience of politics.
Since he returned to Taiwan in 1989, Lin has devoted himself to social and political reforms.
In March 1991, he founded the Chilin Foundation (慈林文教基金會), seeking to end political corruption through spiritual reform. The foundation focuses on cultivating young talents and disseminating Lin's beliefs in mercy and love.
At the time when the DPP's resolution on reform has sometimes given way to political considerations, Lin represents a moral force in the party that can not be challenged.
Lin treats issues such as the anti-nuclear movement or the need for a public referendum like a social-awakening movement. They are tools for him to carry out his conception of true democracy, which is, "the people are the master in a civil society; the strength of the people outweighs that of the government."
It will be a long way to go before he reaches his goals under Taiwan's fledgling democracy.
As he cited Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken the day he resigned his DPP chairmanship in May 2000, Lin said that he would always choose "the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
The difference Lin insists, however, will put the DPP in a quandary.
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