The disaster from underground has shaken the people of Taiwan, leaving depression, anxiety, and insecurity in its aftermath. In addition to rebuilding our homes and livelihoods, Taiwan's collective spirit needs rehabilitation as well. Our ancestors' actions can be our source of strength.
Named by Portuguese traders as Formosa (beautiful island) in the 16th century, Taiwan's verdant and magnificent landscape does not protect it from natural calamities. On the contrary, typhoons, floods, landslides, tsunamis and earthquakes come to visit the island every year.
Lan Ting-yuan (藍鼎元), an imperial official during the Ching dynasty, wrote in a chronicle about Taiwan 278 years ago: "In the eighth and tenth months, there were three inauspicious days. Vortexes and violent rains threw tiles from the roof into the sky. Large and small boats at the ports in Taiwan were all smashed into pieces. Soldiers held onto each other and dared not move. It was clear and quiet on the next day. No houses were left intact. Tens of thousands of people were killed by collapsed houses or drowned by floods. Dead bodies were all over the river. Roads were filled with ruins."
What a heart-rendering scene his account paints. How could Taiwan have become what it is today if our ancestors -- when they arrived from the mainland to cultivate this land -- had considered Taiwan an abominable place and left in disappointment?
In addition, cholera and malaria killed many early Chinese immigrants. When the Japanese army invaded Taiwan 100 years ago, a member of the Japanese royal family who defeated local anti-Japanese militia around the island eventually lost his life to malaria.
In the past, with scanty goods and materials, early Taiwanese residents lived in a harsh environment. Earthquakes were among the most devastating calamities.
Around 160 years ago, a low-ranking official wrote: "One day, an earthquake shook the island. A woodsman was walking in front of me. The earth cracked and he fell into it. The fissure closed up." He told his fellow mainlanders what he saw. People who had not seen this kind of thing thought it was nonsense.
Between 1904 and 1906, successive earthquakes rocked the Chianan Plain (嘉南平原) in central Taiwan. Catholic priests in their mission reports recorded the quakes that early immigrants encountered. One priest wrote: "Although I have experienced many [earthquakes] since I came to Taiwan, it seems to me that I have never got used to them. On that day, I was with two other fathers in Shutzuchiao (樹仔腳), Touliu (斗六). We were still sleeping at 4am when all of a sudden a strong quake shook us up. The quake was so strong that I could not figure out whether I was on solid ground or in a small boat that was shaken by giant waves. The objects in the house fell onto the ground and rolled around. Then I heard something horrible that sounded as if the ground had cracked. Rumblings came from the core of the earth. The only thing I could do was give myself to God and bend my body into a ball..."
One-and-a-half years later, another priest described an even more devastating earthquake: "Later, one corner of the sacred temple started to collapse. I thought the end of the world had arrived. The quake was so strong that the bell tower started to shake. The tolling of the bell added to an atmosphere of horror. It seemed to me that every strike on the bell was a dirge to my dying life ... [Touliu] hardly had a house intact. Even the tall buildings built by the Japanese ruler failed to escape from the catastrophe. But the disaster was not over yet. There were still four or five aftershocks every day. In many areas, fissures in the earth ejected large amounts of lava and dark liquid. Chiayi (
The massive quake in 1906 killed and injured more than 3,600 people and the tectonic shifts leveled a mountain. The horror was no less than what we have experienced recently. Some fortune-tellers asserted that Taiwan would sink ten days after the quake. Now, 90 years have past. Taiwan is marching on. Our ancestors have gone through it. There is no reason why we cannot make it.
Sixty-four years ago, a high-magnitude earthquake killed 15,000 people here. Yang Chao-chia (
Chen Ro-jinn is a freelance writer.
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