The Greater Tainan Government unveiled a bronze bust of Wang King-ho (王金河), a famed doctor popularly known as the “Father of Blackfoot Disease,” on National Doctors’ Day on Nov. 12.
The statue was a project of the city’s Tourism Bureau to honor Wang for his work in combating blackfoot disease, a condition caused by drinking arsenic-contaminated well water. The bust was installed at the Taiwan Blackfoot Disease Socio-Medical Service Memorial Park in Beimen District (北門), where Wang used to have his clinic.
Although some locals have expressed mixed feelings about the event — because of the customary practice of honoring someone with a statue only if the individual has passed away — Wang, 98, said he did not feel that the statue was a curse, adding that he was enjoying the occasion.
Photo: Yang Chin-cheng, Taipei Times
“I didn’t really do any great work. Actually, I feel guilty because the local government had to go through all the trouble of carving and producing this bronze sculpture for me,” he said modestly. “Anyway, I like it.”
“It looks a lot like me, very handsome,” Wang said.
The bust was made by bronze master Hsiao Chi-lang (蕭啟郎), who highlighted Wang’s esteemed attributes of benevolence and generosity in medical service.
Wang’s eldest son, Wang Chao-lung (王朝龍), said the idea of having a bust of his father did feel odd at first, but he later decided not to refuse the bureau’s good intention.
Greater Tainan Tourism Bureau Director Julian Chen (陳俊安) said the bust “is to salute Wang King-ho’s lifetime’s work on blackfoot disease.”
“His dedication and sacrifice for the cause is like the spirit of Albert Schweitzer [doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner] for people in southern Taiwan. The Tainan government wants to commemorate his great deeds and dedication for future generations to remember,” Chen said.
Guided tours and information displays at the memorial park, along with Wang King-ho’s bust, give visitors a better understanding of the history and medical developments in blackfoot disease, as well as the doctor’s unselfish service to society, he added.
With the aid of the Mustard Seed Mission, a Christian charity, Wang King-ho set up a free clinic for the treatment of blackfoot disease in the then-Beimen Township in 1960.
That began his more than 25 years of practice mainly dedicated to the treatment of blackfoot disease. At one time, the clinic took in more than 80 patients who lived and were treated for free at the clinic.
For patients who died destitute, Wang King-ho also helped pay for their funeral expenses.
After World War II, Wang King-ho was elected the first township chief of Beimen, and went on to serve two terms on the then-Tainan county council.
Wang is also a recipient of the Lifetime Medical Service Award and Outstanding Tainan Citizen Award for his work.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching