An Yimin temple recently discovered in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽) could be related to an uprising against the Japanese colonial government in 1895, the city’s Department of Hakka Affairs said.
The temple is on a small mountain path on Yuanshan (鳶山) and, according to research conducted by Jianguo Elementary School teacher Chen Chung-yu (陳仲宇) in Taoyuan, it is the only Yimin (“righteous people,” 義民) temple in the district.
Sansia has traditionally been considered a Minnan region, while Yimin temples belong to Hakka belief, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of Chen Chung-yu
The Yimin belief is thought to stem from deified Hakka warriors who died putting down rebellions in Taiwan for the Qing Empire or during a rebellion against Japan following the ceding of Taiwan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Although Yimin belief is unique in the deification of Hakka fighters, it has been conferred upon Hakka, Minnan and Aborigines by the Qing Dynasty.
Chen said the architectural style of the temple is decidedly late Qing, and the couplets on the temple, “Our uprising heralds the new age, but the people reminisce the lands of old,” imply that its construction came on the verge of political change.
The temple is close to the site of the Victory of Fenshuilun (分水崙), where Japanese troops were ambushed by primarily Hakka fighters, Chen said, adding that it could mean the temple commemorated people who died in the battle.
The battle was part of the Japanese takeover of Taiwan in 1895, when Japanese troops put down a rebellion by the Republic of Formosa established by the gentry after the First Sino-Japanese War to protest the ceding of Taiwan.
Chen said that the temple is considered a bao zhong Yimin temple (褒忠義民廟), a specific type of temple reserved for those of Hakka heritage, but the owner of the plot of land on which the structure stands said that the temple was built in 1910 by Fukienese.
Department of Hakka Affairs Director Lai Chin-ho (賴金河), academics studying Yimin belief and local history and culture enthusiasts visited the temple, hoping to find more information.
Prior to the discovery of the temple, the earliest known Hakka presence in the district was between 1912 and 1926 when they first moved into today’s Wuliao (五寮) and Jinmin (金敏) townships to cultivate tea, Lai said.
However, the discovery of the temple suggests it is possible that there were Hakka in Sansia during the early Japanese colonial era when anti-Japan rebellions were rife, Lai said, adding that this was a significant discovery for Hakka history in the district.
If research confirms Chen’s theory and the landowner agrees to subsequent development, the department would ask for funding from the central government to turn the area into a tourist site, Lai said.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight
Television presenter Mickey Huang (黃子佼) yesterday was indicted for allegedly possessing sexually explicit videos involving minors. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Huang after the High Prosecutors’ Office found deficiencies in its initial probe and on April 19 returned the case for further investigation. Earlier last month, Huang had been given two years of deferred prosecution. Prosecutors said that they found in their latest investigation that Huang had been a member of the online forum “Chuangyi Sifang” (創意私房) since Feb. 12, 2014. He purchased sexually explicit videos involving minors, and had downloaded images and videos that featured the breasts and sexual organs of young