Iconic democracy pioneer and Christian minister the Reverend Kao Chun-ming (高俊明), 89, passed away yesterday at 5:25pm, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan said.
Kao, a life-long Taiwan independence advocate, was known for helping Shih Ming-te (施明德) give the authorities the slip, after Shih became a fugitive because of his involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident during the White Terror era.
Arrested in April 1980, Kao was sentenced to seven years in prison, but later served as an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Presidential Office spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said in a statement yesterday President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) mourned Kao’s death and that the nation had lost a great man.
“Kao was a guiding light for Taiwanese democracy and his courage will be remembered forever, as the bush that burned and was not consumed,” Chang said.
Kao was born in 1929. His grandfather Kao Chang (高長) was the nation’s first Presbyterian convert and a follower of medical doctor and missionary James L. Maxwell Sr.
In an interview with the Chinese Christian Tribune, Kao Chun-ming said he was a willful child who hated going to church and studying.
He came to appreciate his circumstances and the importance of intellectual pursuits only after attending night school in Japan, where students from less fortunate backgrounds worked to earn a living by day and studied by night, Kao Chun-ming said.
Witnessing the carnage after the allied forces bombed Japan in World War II, he experienced a spiritual awakening and decided to attend a seminary, Kao Chun-ming said.
Kao Chun-ming served as the principle of Yushan Theological College and Seminiary from 1957 to 1970.
In 2012, then-Tainan mayor William Lai (賴清德) visited him at his residence and presented him with a commendation that honored him as a “Taiwanese of high character.”
Last month, Kao Chun-ming cosigned a public letter asking Tsai not to seek re-election next year, citing the electoral drubbing that the Democratic Progressive Party received in November last year.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS