Members of the Chen family clan in Chiayi County are organizing a large gathering on Lunar New Year’s Day to commemorate their forefather, Chen Li-hsun (陳立勳), who came to Taiwan with the Ming Dynasty warlord Koxinga (鄭成功) more than 350 years ago.
Said to be one of the Koxinga’s most trusted generals, Chen settled in Houjue Village (後堀), a hillside community in what is now Lutsao Township (鹿草) in Chiayi County.
According to the township’s records, most of Lutsao’s residents are descended from Chen.
Photo: Wu Shih-tsung, Taipei Times
Almost all 75 households in Houjue Village have the surname Chen, because few outsiders have settled in the township.
The village has an “Ancestor Worship Hall for Chen clan of southern Taiwan” (南陳宗祠), built more than 260 years ago.
It was refurbished in 1986, and is now a public institution, open for ancestral worship ceremonies, public gatherings and festive events.
The worship hall is dedicated to Chen Li-hsun and his wife, and prominently displays their portraits. It also enshrines Matsu, the goddess of the sea, and Royal Lord Chih (池府千歲).
There is an imperial flag base, a royal grant from the Qing Dynasty court on the hall’s plaza, for banner displays to salute the Chen clan’s three Jinshi (進士), academics who achieved top honors in the Chinese imperial court mandarins’ entrance examinations.
The hall also features a stone tablet inscribed with the history of the Chen ancestors’ pioneering efforts and settlement in the area.
The Chen clan association of southern Taiwan organized an ancestor worshiping event and banquet two years ago, which was attended by nearly 400 members. It was not repeated last year.
A number of clan members decided to hold the event again this year on New Year’s Day on Sunday to commemorate the history of the Chen clan in the county and to discuss details of starting a national benevolent organization of Chen clans.
The main organizer of the activities, Chen Shui-sheng (陳水盛), a 10th-generation descendant of the general, said that “since settling in Taiwan, Chen Li-hsun’s offspring have thrived through 14 generations. The family branches are flourishing in many places around Taiwan.”
“The Chen clans are divided into three groups, based on where Chen Li-hsun’s three sons lived. I hope to see descendants from all three groups gather here for the event,” he added.
Chen clan members can contact Chen Shui-sheng on 0937-577-892.
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
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
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
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS