The Nantou County Cultural Heritage Association has discovered artifacts that have been kept at Ailan Presbyterian Church in Nantou County’s Puli Township (埔里) for more than a century.
Established in 1871, the church in Ailan Borough (愛蘭) is the oldest in Puli.
It was one of the first churches to be established in Taiwan after Christian missionaries arrived in 1865, pastor Chen Ching-en (陳清恩) said.
Photo courtesy of Liang Chih-chung
At the time, the area was inhabited by the Pazeh people, and church data show that in late December 1871, the entire community converted to Christianity, he said.
Among the artifacts preserved by the church is an account of the donations it received from 1910 to 1913, said association chairman Liang Chih-chung (梁志忠), who discovered them while surveying religious establishments.
Parishioners made donations to repair the church, which was called Wuniulan Chapel (烏牛欄禮拜堂) at the time, he said.
Photo: Chen Feng-li, Taipei Times
The records show that many Pazeh people were surnamed Pan (潘), and some had names as long as five or six characters, he said.
In the church’s possession is also a passbook that tracked funds donated by parishioners toward the construction of new buildings, he said.
By 1949, the church had saved more than 200,000 Old Taiwan dollars, he said, adding that it withdrew 80,000 dollars on June 13, 1949, leaving 120,000 dollars in the account.
However, just two days later, the passbook was stamped with words indicating that every 40,000 Old Taiwan dollars would be exchanged for NT$1, turning the church’s savings into NT$3, he said.
The passbook is a witness to the history of rapid devaluation of the Old Taiwan dollar after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government issued the New Taiwan dollar, he said.
When the church was established, Taiwanese society valued men more than women, and women’s level of education was generally low, Chen said.
However, many Pazeh women in the area attended Chang Jung Girls’ High School in Tainan and many returned to teach at Ailan Elementary School upon graduation, he added.
This story has been amended since it was first published to correct the dates.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS