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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
RSS