Taiwan:

Four Decades of Faith

By Christopher K. Bigelow

The roots of faith are spreading on the beautiful island of Taiwan.

A large framed picture of the Taipei Taiwan Temple hangs on an alcove wall inside Taiwanese Church member Chang Chih Hsun’s hydraulic-machine business. Symbolizing his new faith, the temple’s spires point heavenward. The picture replaces a shrine where employees once burned incense.

“Most business places in Taiwan have a shrine where employees worship a god of prosperity,” explains Brother Chang. “After I joined the Church, I hung a picture of the temple where the shrine used to be.”

His example is characteristic of the faith and courage Church members in Taiwan demonstrate as they strive to live the gospel. Brother Chang, who serves as stake mission president in the Taichung Taiwan Stake, recently offered a cash bonus to any of his employees who would give up smoking, as he did before his baptism in 1995. So far, no one has taken him up on the offer.

“Before my husband joined the Church, he did not know what love was,” says Brother Chang’s wife, Chang Wu Lan Hua, who was baptized 10 years before her husband. “Now he knows how to love me and the family.” The Changs were sealed in the Taipei Taiwan Temple in 1996.

“Beautiful Island”

Located about 150 kilometers off the Chinese mainland, Taiwan was named Ilha Formosa—meaning “beautiful island”—by Portuguese explorers in 1590. The island continued to be known to the Western world as Formosa until the mid-20th century. People originally from southern China have been living in Taiwan for centuries. The Chinese word Taiwan means “terraced bay.” Before the Chinese, people of Indonesian and Filipino descent made the island their home; many of their descendants still live in the island’s mountainous regions.

Leadership of the island has changed often. Dutch traders dominated Taiwan from 1624 until 1661, when a Chinese dynasty took over. The Japanese controlled Taiwan from 1895 until 1945. In 1949 Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek led nearly two million military, government, and business people to Taiwan after the Communists assumed leadership on the mainland. Today, Taiwan is known as the Republic of China. Mandarin Chinese is the official language, although a Taiwanese dialect is widely spoken.

During the past 50 years, Taiwan has undergone a dramatic transformation from an agricultural outpost to an economic powerhouse where citizens enjoy a relatively high standard of living. However, faced with high food, housing, and automobile costs, many Church members must work unusually hard to support their families. The nation’s workweek often stretches into six or even seven full days.

In Taitung, a smaller city on Taiwan’s scenic, mountainous eastern coast, economic challenges are especially difficult. Local member Chen Shun Chun reports that many people must work on Sundays to keep their jobs.

According to Elder John H. Groberg of the Seventy, former President of the Church’s Asia Area, this means that “faithful members must keep spiritually focused and do the best they can to keep a healthy balance among family, church, and work. Keeping materialism at bay is a challenge all of us meet through the decisions and choices we make.”

The Church in Taiwan offers many examples of those who have made the right decisions. Hsiung Kuan Ping, bishop of the Taipei Third Ward, Taipei Taiwan East Stake, remembers his father as one of those examples. “My father served as a bishop for many years,” Bishop Hsiung says. “The church was like our home. My father loved it. Every day he made sure the doors and windows were closed. I helped clean the meetinghouse and at age 14 began assisting the clerk. Now I’m very busy with work and family, but because of my father’s influence I make time for Church service. If I put the Church first, I find I have easier success in my work and family.”

“Other than family time on Monday night and some Saturdays, I am always either working or at the church,” says Ma Ju Min, bishop of the Taichung First Ward, Taichung Taiwan Stake. “Saturday night is to go out on dates with my wife—that’s very important. Whenever I make a decision about choosing work, I ask for Heavenly Father’s help. I have been blessed with good jobs that allow me to support my family and serve in the Church.”

Because of the high potential for burnout from too much job-related work and Church service, leaders try to be sensitive when extending Church callings. “We really think carefully before giving members callings,” says Yang Shi Ling, second counselor in the Kaohsiung Fifth Ward, Kaohsiung Taiwan Stake. “We talk to them and make sure they feel comfortable. We really keep our eyes on them to make sure they don’t get too tired. If they get frustrated, we try to help them with their problems.”

Baptized at age 15, Chen Hsin Shun learned early to exercise his faith during economic challenges and to make sacrifices for the Church. While he was preparing to serve a mission, his family’s business failed and his father asked him to help support the family. He told his father, “Trust my God for three months, and see if He doesn’t bless the family while I’m on a mission.” His father agreed to try the experiment, and Elder Chen prayed diligently for blessings. About a month and a half into his mission, he received a letter from his father saying he wouldn’t need to come back early because the family’s business had signed a lucrative 10-year contract. Today Brother Chen serves as a high councilor in the Kaohsiung stake.

Pressure on Youth

The economic competitiveness of Taiwan begins to affect youth at about age 12, when they enter the final three years of the nation’s compulsory national education. “Students have to pass a very tough exam to go to high school,” explains Elder Liang Shih An, an Area Authority Seventy who works as a professor in Taipei. Juan Jiu Chang, first counselor in the Taichung stake presidency and a self-employed English teacher, estimates that because of the difficult requirements only 30 to 40 percent of Taiwanese students attend a college-preparation high school. The pressure continues through high school because students must pass more difficult exams to enter a university.

“Good Taiwanese guardians for the most part do not let children make the choice of whether or not to study,” says Elder Groberg. “Church leaders are sensitive to this issue. We recognize that the Taiwanese youth need to have all the support they can get to meet the real educational challenges they face.

“Most Church families emphasize that the many hours of study need to be tempered with periods of time when other important aspects of life receive emphasis,” Elder Groberg continues. “Great challenges come in the life of the student who is the only Church member in the family. Obedience to parents is very important not only in the Taiwanese culture but also in the Church. A mature effort is required to maintain balance in the lives of these young people. They will survive and will be stronger and happier for their prayerful choices.”

Seminary in Taiwan is home-study, with about a third of eligible youth enrolled. Institute is much more successful, with more than 90 percent of eligible students enrolled as well as many nonstudent young adults. “Teaching institute is my favorite calling,” says Taipei West Stake president Yang Tsung Ting, who was in Taiwan’s first institute graduating class in 1977.

Religious and Family Challenges

As elsewhere in the world, the restored gospel often generates cultural friction with deeply ingrained religious and family traditions in Taiwan. About 93 percent of the citizenry practice some combination of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, with a heavy emphasis on ancestor worship. However, Taiwan has complete religious freedom, and about a million people adhere to various Christian denominations.

With traditional Chinese religion tied so closely to respect for ancestors, including living parents, younger converts in Taiwan often face immense struggles in embracing the gospel. Parental control in Taiwan gradually loosens but often is still quite strong at age 30, especially if a son or daughter isn’t married yet.

Karl Robert Koerner, who served a mission to Taiwan more than 30 years ago and recently served as president of the Taichung mission, says: “When Taiwanese people join the Church, they stop worshiping other gods, but there may be some practices that are hard to stop. This is because of family expectations and pressure.”

Yang Tsung Ting, president of the Taipei West stake, explains: “Most Taiwanese parents expect that when they die, their children will burn paper money and incense for them and offer food. Otherwise they fear they will be hungry and poor in the next life. That is why older people sometimes panic when they see their young people join the Church.”

Church leaders are particularly sensitive to these parental concerns. “We encourage people investigating the Church to talk to their parents and tell them what they are learning about,” says Yeh Chen Meng, president of the Kaohsiung stake. “It’s important that parents see the difference the gospel makes in their children’s lives.” It is also important that parents see their children honoring them and their ancestry.

Emphasis on the Temple

“Church members emphasize ancestors but in a different way,” says President Yang Tsung Ting. “We do family history work, submit names to the temple, and perform ordinances for their eternal benefit.”

Juan Jui Chang, first counselor in the Taichung stake presidency, enjoyed a powerful experience performing temple ordinances for his deceased parents. “Though I had been attending the temple for more than 13 years at that point,” President Juan says, “I felt the Spirit more strongly than ever while performing the work for my parents. In the sealing room, I represented my father and my wife represented my mother, and we knelt together at the altar. We felt it was the greatest thing we could do for our parents.”

In an address delivered during the dedication of the Taipei Taiwan Temple in November 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley noted that the temple was built on land previously occupied by a prison. “This house,” he said, “built on what was once prison property, will open the prison doors of the veil of death” (in R. Lanier Britsch, From the East: The History of the Latter-day Saints in Asia, 1851–1996 [1998], 292).

“Some of us see a connection between ways of Chinese worshiping and the ceremonies done in the Old Testament,” says President Juan Jui Chang. “One example is the traditional Chinese doorway, which has red posts along the sides and top, similar to what the Jews did at Passover so the angel of death would fly over them. The Chinese character for boat shows an arklike vessel and eight people, perhaps some connection to the flood story. Chinese shrines and temples have an inner court and an outer court, and offerings are made similar to ancient Israel’s practices. We need to help people see that the gospel is not something foreign to Taiwanese culture but something we already know pieces of.”

Elder Groberg says: “The Chinese culture has many similarities to the gospel in that the general emphasis is on truth, beauty, kindness, family, and other positive attributes. The opportunities this presents to the Church are apparent in that we are dealing with people whose mind-set is not that much different than our own when it comes to cultural values. The problem is that they generally feel they don’t need the gospel because they already have the same value system in place. At times they feel that Westerners are trying to invade their culture with something that isn’t too different from what they have already had in place for centuries. The Church has the opportunity to help them learn about every mortal’s need for the Savior and His plan of salvation.”

The Church has reached a strong and mature stage in Taiwan. From the time the preaching of the restored gospel began in Taiwan in 1956, it was a relatively short 20 years before the first stake was created, and growth is continuing at a steady pace. Many native Taiwanese are serving full-time missions and returning to their local wards and branches as seasoned servants ready to lead the Church into the future.

Chen Shun Chun, former president of the Hua Lien district, recently drew a diagram to illustrate the far-reaching results of his baptism in 1973. Starting with his name and his wife’s name in the center, he wrote down dozens of interconnected family members and others who have joined the Church, received the priesthood, received the temple endowment, served missions and converted others, and been sealed in the temple. One special area of the diagram lists deceased people whose ordinance work has been done vicariously. President Chen estimates that a whole ward has resulted from his baptism 26 years ago.

With countless other gospel seeds being planted and coming into fruition, the physically “beautiful island” of Taiwan will grow even more spiritually beautiful as the years go by.

Taiwan Today

Population—22 million

Size—Approximately 35,900 square kilometers (about the size of the Netherlands)

Church membership—24,000 (about 0.1 percent of the population)

Temple—Taipei

Missions—3 (Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei)

Stakes—6 (Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei Central, Taipei East, Taipei West)

Districts—5 (Chung Hsing, Hsin Chu, Hua Lien, Pingtung, Tao Yuan)

Wards—31

Branches—31

Church-owned meetinghouses—22

Leased meetinghouses—17

Church History in Taiwan

1921—Elder David O. McKay dedicates Chinese realm

1956—Missionaries arrive in Taiwan from Hong Kong

1959—Elder Mark E. Petersen rededicates Taiwan

1965—Book of Mormon published in Chinese

1966—First meetinghouse dedicated in Taipei

1971—First mission created in Taiwan

1973—Church Educational System begins programs

1975—Membership reaches 7,000

1975—Doctrine and Covenants published in Chinese

1976—First stake organized in Taipei

1976—Pearl of Great Price published in Chinese

1984—Taipei temple dedicated

1998—Membership reaches 24,000

Sailor in the Storm

Wade Lin joined the Church in 1993 after meeting missionaries in a library. He served as a full-time missionary for several months; then unusual circumstances forced him to leave his mission early to perform Taiwan’s mandatory two years of military service. Despite his full-time duties in the navy, Wade’s missionary work has continued.

At a dinner for sailors, the commanding officer gave everyone a bottle of beer for a toast. When Wade declined, the officer told him he had two choices: drink the beer or drink two large bottles of soda. Wade drank soda until he felt sick. The officer continued to be hard on him after that, but Wade stood his ground. In time others came to respect him more. Now he is often trusted with finances and other important duties, such as negotiating with military headquarters.

A Widow’s Faith

After her husband died of cancer, Sun Huei Lin had to start working to support her three daughters. She cleans the Taichung stake center and does paperwork at a karate club, but the family still struggles economically. “This life is a time of learning and trials,” she says. “But God lives, and He will not give us greater trials than we can bear.”

One of her husband’s colleagues offered to regularly baby-sit Sister Sun’s youngest daughter. “I wanted to share the gospel in return,” she says. So she gave the family a subscription to the Liahona (Chinese), prayed for them, and put their names on the temple prayer roll. One of the colleague’s children joined the Church and remains active.

When Sister Sun was sealed to her husband before his death, she felt that God was watching the ceremony. “I know our marriage is forever and I am only temporarily separated from my husband,” she says. She serves in her ward Relief Society presidency.

Leading with Love

Since 1994 Chen Jien Nien has served in the local government of the city of Taitung. A pharmacist by profession and a former branch president, he is thought to be the first Latter-day Saint elected to public office in Taiwan.

“Politics are full of difficulties and complications, so I really need the Lord to help me,” Brother Chen says. “Sometimes politicians are tempted to do unethical things, but the gospel helps me figure out the right track. I pray and get inspiration so I can hold on to my principles.”

Friends, work associates, and newspaper reporters have come to know of Brother Chen’s Church membership because of his abstinence from alcoholic beverages. In Taiwan much government business is conducted while the participants eat and drink in bars, clubs, and restaurants.

On the wall behind Brother Chen’s desk hangs a large print of the Chinese character for love. “I am motivated by love,” says Brother Chen. “I try to influence other people to treat each other with love.”

Photography by Christopher K. Bigelow

Opposite page, top: Chen Sung Chun, Pei Tou Ward, Taipei East stake, and his daughter Lu Chen Hsien-fen; Left: The Bridge of Motherly Devotion straddles Taroko Gorge; Right: Leh Fen-fen, Kaohsiung First Ward, Kaohsiung stake; Bottom: Chen Benjamin and Chen Yao Mindy with their sons, Tommy and Jimmy, Kaohsiung First Ward; Background: The Taipei Taiwan Temple. Above: Traditional Chinese sculpture depicts yin-yang.

Right: Standing in a public garden, Taipei Taiwan West Stake President Yang Tsung Ting holds a book commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Church in Taiwan.

Relief Society sisters in Taipei with one of several displays at a “Happy Kitchen” stake activity.

Right: Kaohsiung youth involved in a dumpling-making contest at a stake activity.

Left, background: The Taipei temple; Above: Taiwanese pioneer couples (from left)—Hu Wei-i and Hu Yu Mei-hsiu from the Mu Cha Ward, Taipei West stake; and from the Taipei Second Ward, Taipei Taiwan Central Stake, Liang Jun-sheng and Liang Wu I-ya and Chen Meng-yu and Chen Lin Shi-liang.

Lai Kuan-wen, Taipei Third Ward, Taipei Taiwan East Stake, proudly adds his name to the CTR emblem.