In the cool autumn air, in the flower-bedecked mountains near Liuchangli in Taipei, the heroes of yesteryear lie silently in their mist-covered graves.

Down below the mountains, the staff of the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum are busy readying the exhibition "Age of Self-Awareness-Memorial Exhibition of the Taiwan People's Party" for relocation to Kaohsiung. Meanwhile, the Taipei City Bureau of Cultural Affairs (BCA) has been trying to set up a "Taiwan Cultural Movement Museum" on the site of the old headquarters of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), and it is possible that The Complete Works of Chiang Wei-shui-which had been confiscated by the Japanese colonial authorities-will, with financial support from the BCA, again see the light of day. A spate of stories related to the TPP and its founder Chiang Wei-shui have hit the newspapers recently, bringing this historic figure from the Japanese occupation era out of dusty old books and giving his 21st-century heirs a chance to get to know him.

To tell the tale of Chiang's decade-long devotion to political and social reform is equivalent to telling the exciting but tragic history of the non-violent resistance to Japan in Taiwan's mid-colonial period.

In 1895, the Qing Court signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding Taiwan to Japan. Japanese military forces then occupied the island, and a governor-general was given total authority to make laws and regulations with the objective of implementing a colonial policy of full control and suppression. Unwilling to accept the rule of outsiders, Taiwanese rose up in revolt in many places, leading to numerous battles in which the rebels, armed only with sticks and knives, suffered grievous losses against the modern army of Japan.

This resistance continued for many years. The brutal Hsi-lai-an incident-in which more than 10,000 people were killed in battle, executed afterwards, or otherwise imprisoned or punished-occurred a full 20 years after the Japanese first took control of the island. Sadly, "because these grass-roots anti-Japanese movements had no clear political objectives and the fighters had no military training, the years of rebellion all came to naught," says Chien Jhiung-jen, a professor of humanities at Providence University and author of the book The Taiwan People's Party. From these bloody lessons, Taiwan's gentry realized that there was no future in armed resistance, and so began the non-violent approach to challenging the colonial regime.

Chiang Wei-shui, as refined and noble as a model classical Chinese literatus, was once assaulted after a lecture by someone who threw mud all over him and then took a picture. The photo shows how he was a great leader yet at the same time retained a childlike innocence. (courtesy of Chiang Sung-hui)

An age of heroes

The global turmoil of the second half of the 1910s was a further catalyst. After World War I (1914-1918), the idea of national self-determination, especially strongly espoused by US president Woodrow Wilson, swept the globe. Nationalist and independence movements sprang up all over Europe and Asia as peoples tried to break the bonds of imperialism and colonialism.

Another factor was that Japan was then just entering the Taisho Period, in which the ideas of liberalism and democracy were in the ascendant. Students from Taiwan studying in Japan watched as that country moved in the direction of the rule of law, protection of individual rights, economic prosperity, and political democracy. The contrast of what they saw there with Taiwan, where people were filled with resentment at discrimination and economic exploitation, was naturally infuriating. In 1920 Taiwanese students in Tokyo formed a political grouping to demand change, and took practical steps to cooperate with local gentry at home in a petition movement for the establishment of an elected assembly in Taiwan, opening a new page in the non-violent resistance to Japan.

At this time the first generation of Taiwanese to receive modern education was reaching maturity. Young people graduating from the colonial medical school and the Japanese-language teachers college in Taiwan often met in secret, and students in Taiwan and Taiwanese students in Japan stayed in contact, lending each other moral support. "We Taiwanese youth were educated under Japanese rule, but our Chinese consciousness was robust. First thing in the morning each day we would read the newspapers to see how the Chinese revolution was progressing," wrote Tu Tsung-ming, the first Taiwanese ever to receive a PhD in medicine, in his memoirs.

Chiang Wei-shui's Ta-an Clinic was also headquarters of the Taiwan Cultural Association, the Taiwan distribution center for Taiwan Minpao, and an important base for the Taiwan People's Party, playing a key role in the nonviolent resistance against Japanese colonialism. The photo, dated January 6, 1925, shows issues of Taiwan Minpao loaded up for distribution. Chiang is first at left in the second row. (courtesy of Chuang Yung-ming)

Passionate youth

Within this group of passionate young people, Chiang Wei-shui was especially outstanding both for his academic accomplishments and his great leadership ability. Moreover, as a young person he had received a classical Chinese education from a Confucian scholar from Ilan, Chang Mao-tsai, as a result of which Chiang had a profound emotional attachment to the Chinese nation and a strong sense of Chinese cultural identity. While still in medical school he hatched a plot with Tu Tsung-ming and Weng Chun-ming to use germs to assassinate Yuan Shih-kai, who had tried to restore the imperial system after it was toppled by the Republican revolution. Chiang also collected money among his classmates to be donated to support Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary army, secretly joined the Chinese Revolutionary Party (the forerunner of the Kuomintang), and organized a meeting with students from other schools in order to criticize Japanese imperial rule and promote the spirit of revolution.

"This was a critical phase in which Chiang Wei-shui's revolutionary character was developed," says DPP Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung, who published a biography of Chiang in 1976.

After graduating from medical school in 1915, Chiang Wei-shui opened the Ta-an Clinic in Tataocheng, and also opened two restaurants. There he was at the center of Taiwan's intellectual and social life. For about five years he was absorbed in his career and his businesses, but he remained deeply concerned about politics and society. In those days many of his colleagues, unwilling to live under Japanese rule, moved to Xiamen in the mainland to set up practice, while still others went for further education in Japan; these periodically brought back information about the latest political and economic developments in Japan and China.

In 1921, the first petition campaign for the establishment of a Taiwan assembly was launched in Tokyo. Taiwanese gentry such as Lin Hsien-tang and Tsai Hui-ju called on the Japanese government to establish a popularly elected assembly in Taiwan. They hoped to gain sympathy from both governing and opposition parties and bring to bear the power of the central government in Japan in order to force the hand of the governor-general in Taipei. Chiang Wei-shui was deeply affected by this effort, calling it "the only road to survival for the Taiwanese people." It was around this time that he first met Lin Hsien-tang, and his dormant passion for politics was reignited. Encouraged by a number of his classmates from medical school, and supported financially by Lin, in 1921 Chiang Wei-shui established the Taiwan Cultural Association (Taiwan Bunka Kyokai), with its headquarters at Ta-an Clinic.

The lyrics for the anthem of the Taiwan Cultural Association, penned by Chiang Wei-shui himself, declare that the association was accepting a mission, set by Fate, to develop culture, promote morality, and cultivate talent in people. (courtesy of the Chiu Chiang Memorial Museum)

The Taiwanese spirit

The stated purpose of the Taiwan Cultural Association (TCA) was to strengthen culture and education among Taiwanese, and to resist the efforts of the Japanese authorities to assimilate Taiwanese into Japanese culture and to eradicate Taiwanese culture. In order to publicize these goals, Chiang Wei-shui wrote the famous article "A Just Diagnosis." In it he compared Taiwan to a sick patient: "During its youth in the Zheng Chenggong era, the patient was nimble and healthy, of noble character and excellent behavior. But since the Qing Dynasty it has been infected by toxic policy, becoming physically weak and lacking in willpower, and is now 'a retarded child' among world cultures." Chiang believed that the root cause of Taiwan's illness was "knowledge malnutrition." He offered a five-part prescription for curing the island, including formal schooling, libraries, and newspaper reading societies.

After that the TCA focused its work around Chiang's prescription. Newspaper reading societies were set up throughout Taiwan, and there were lecture tours covering everything from history, law, public health, economics, and science to Chinese culture and the Meiji Restoration.

In this period Chiang also was active in the assembly petition campaign. In 1926 when the crown prince of Japan visited Taiwan on an inspection tour on his father's behalf, the governor-general launched an island-wide welcoming campaign. Arches were erected, flags were put up, and at night lanterns were lit. The Taiwan Daily News, the main Japanese-language newspaper of that time, published fawning poems and articles.

Chiang Chao-ken, Chiang Wei-shui's grandson and himself a writer and historian, has written: "When the crown prince, led by mounted cavalry, entered Tataocheng on his inspection tour, his route led past the Ta-an Clinic. There Chiang Wei-shui was holding up a large banner stating 'The Taiwan Assembly Petition Group Welcomes His Highness on His Visit to Taiwan.' This phony welcome, which in reality expressed a genuine appeal, was deeply embarrassing for the office of the governor-general." This gesture naturally brought retaliation against Chiang, and he was afterwards arrested and investigated. At the end of the same year, the colonial authorities launched an island-wide roundup of activists in the petition campaign (including Chiang) and accused them of violating the "Social Order and Police Law." This incident rocked the island.

The lectures sponsored by the Taiwan Cultural Association brought speakers to the masses and met with an enthusiastic response from the general public. (courtesy of Wen Wen-ching)

A silver lining

However, "although Chiang Wei-shui and others were found guilty in the Social Order and Police Incident," writes Huang Huang-hsiung in his Chiang biography, "they indirectly benefited from this, because it became a focal point for the political and social movement." The overreaction and repression by the colonial authorities against these activists-whose petition campaign was moderate and perfectly legal, and whose cultural association restricted itself to educational activities-not only fueled popular resentment, but also hardened the attitudes of activists toward the regime.

For Chiang Wei-shui personally, the 144 days that he spent in prison as a result of his two arrests connected with the incident provided him with an opportunity to do more reading and thinking. During this time he immersed himself in the theory of political and social movements and laid a solid foundation for the future development of such activities in Taiwan. Moreover, in prison he was thrown together with gangsters, prostitutes, and opium addicts, inspiring in him a greater interest in social problems.

Following the release of the activists from prison, as a result of the increased public awareness, the TCA's lectures became even bigger events and their impact reached deeper among the common folk. "People in the countryside went crazy. The lecturers were carried around the streets on palanquins, just like [the Goddess of the Sea] Matsu on her divine inspection tours, and local citizens set off bamboo firecrackers to welcome the speakers," says Chiang Chao-ken. Fearing the popular enthusiasm, the Japanese colonial authorities passed new regulations allowing them to block the lectures. If a speaker touched on any sensitive political subject, the ever-watchful police would bring out their "three powerful weapons," first calling out a warning, then commanding the lecturer to halt, and finally ordering the crowd to disperse.

The second party congress set the guiding principles for the Taiwan People's Party. The photo shows the assembly hall, including places on the stage for the press, the secretariat, high-level party functionaries, and translators, as well as banners of various businesses that supported the party. (courtesy of Chiang Sung-hui)

The voice of Taiwan

In addition to lectures and classes, the TCA also entered publishing and the mass media. To get around the governor-general's ban on locals in Taiwan starting up newspapers, in 1923 the Taiwan Minpao appeared in Tokyo, with the distributor for Taiwan situated right next to Ta-an Clinic. Chiang Wei-shui strongly encouraged people to subscribe, and within two years publication volume had surpassed 10,000 copies, pressing on the heels of the three main Japanese papers in Taiwan.

The Wenhua Shuju (Culture Bookstore), opened in 1926, took as its mission the introduction of new culture. Imported books included the two main categories of Chinese-language and Japanese-language works. Chinese books consisted mainly of writings by Sun Yat-sen, Hu Shih, Liang Shuming, Wang Yangming, and other well-known Chinese authors, while Japanese works mainly focused on social issues. Huang Huang-hsiung says that this period was an even more important influence on Chiang Wei-shui's future leadership of the TPP. Through these books, he endeavored to find a workable future direction for political and social activism in Taiwan.

The enlightenment efforts of the TCA made such a deep impression on society that the movement, which originally was led by young intellectuals, became transformed into a more practically oriented one that included more ordinary people and was more directed to the problems of the common man. Without any deliberate intention to do so, it inspired movements among farmers, laborers, and students. But this development also planted the seeds of fragmentation in the TCA.

There were dramatic changes in the internal and external political and social environments in 1925. In China, Sun Yat-sen accepted advisors from the Communist Third International, and reorganized the Kuomintang under a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union, cooperation with the Communist Party of China, and support for workers' and farmers' movements. The KMT found stability, and rode a wave of resistance against warlords and imperialism. Japan, meanwhile, was formally implementing the universal vote, and a number of socialist parties appeared.

It was in this context that the Erhlin Incident occurred. This was a conflict arising from a dispute over prices between sugar cane farmers and the state-run sugar corporation. Farmers' organizations quickly sprang up all over the island, then linked up into a single island-wide grouping. This grouping began to work closely with its counterpart in Japan, and moved increasingly in the direction of a "class struggle" approach, gradually taking it away from the nationalist camp.

These various developments gave rise to internal divisions in the TCA over ideas and strategies, generating a debate between the "nationalist line" and the "class line." Faced with the growing rift, Chiang Wei-shui tried to reconcile the two, drawing the Chinese revolutionary experience and on the labor and farmers' movements in Japan. In a 1926 article entitled "The Left-Right Debate," he stated: "We should oppose all reform ideas which reject tradition and reject national attachments, but at the same time we should not disregard ideals for the future and thereby fall into accommodationism." In early 1927, he proposed the slogan "Compatriots need unity, unity is strength."

The Taiwan People's Parth was founded in 1927, despite the threats of suppression from outside and fragmentation within. It developed rapidly, setting up branches around the island. The photo, taken in front of a Matsu Temple, shows the founding of the Chunan branch;Chiang Wei-shi is fourth from right in the front row.(courtesy of Liao The-hsiung)

The nationalist line

Unfortunately Chiang's ideas could not stop the tide of events. In 1927 the TCA convened a provisional general assembly at which the "proletarian youth" faction gained control of the organization. Chiang, Tsai Pei-huo, and other core members from the early days withdrew, formally creating left and right camps.

Building on his article on the "left-right debate," Chiang Wei-shui further proposed a strategy of "a nationalist movement built on a foundation of the farming and working classes." He argued that while it was right and proper for liberation movements among the oppressed classes in imperialist countries to adopt a strategy of class struggle, oppressed peoples in colonies of imperialism should adopt a strategy of a nationalist movement based on the peasantry and working class.

National Taiwan University philosophy professor Wang Hsiao-po, in an article entitled "The Thought and Practice of Chiang Wei-shui," contends that in these ideas Chiang showed great foresight, because a liberation movement that loses its nationalist focus can only turn a country from a bourgeois colony into a proletarian colony. Wang avers that the fate of Eastern Europe after World War II supports this conclusion, as does the fact that the PRC turned against the USSR in the 1960s, accusing the USSR of "socialist imperialism."

Having defined their strategy, the old TCA leaders next decided to form a political party. There were many obstacles to overcome. Several times they applied for permission to organize an association, but each time were refused because their party platform promoted self-government and national self-determination, putting them at cross-purposes with the government's colonial policy. After amending their platform several times, they were allowed to form their party, but the governor-general's office attached several conditions meant to prevent Chiang Wei-shui from playing a leading role in it.

The party flag and the party's three main goals were inscribed on the party's in-house publication. The flag brightly manifests the ambition and dynamism of their plans to reform the system. (courtesy of Chuang Yung-ming)

The TPP

Despite everything-continued obstacles raised by be colonial authorities, the threat of internal divisions-1927 saw the birth of Taiwan's first-ever political party. Moreover, it developed rapidly, and within half a year 16 branches had been set up across the island.

The TPP, declaring itself to be "a party of the whole people," had three major platforms. The first called for an end to the monopoly of authority exercised by the governor-general's office, seeking representative government, a Taiwan constitution, a separation of powers in government, and Taiwanese participation in the regime. The second platform called for establishment of a reasonable economic system, including raising the standards of living for farmers and laborers, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. The third called for dealing with social problems, such as reforming deplorable customs and implementing equal rights for men and women.

Chiang Wei-shui's hope was that the TPP could bring together all Taiwanese-farmers, laborers, businesspeople, and intellectuals, as well as young people and women. He believed that having the peasants and workers as the core could prevent "senility" (as he called the policy positions of the older conservatives), while uniting these classes with intellectuals and businesspeople could inoculate the party against "infantilism" (the policy positions of the "proletarian youth").

"Faced with a turbulent situation, the real test of leadership ability is how to grasp the overall direction," says Huang Huang-hsiung. If you look at the leaders of the 1920s from this perspective, Chiang Wei-shui was the one who best combined practicality with idealism. Even as the farmers organization and the TCA became increasingly inactive as a result of pressure from the Japanese colonial authorities, and the Taiwan Communist Party had gone completely underground, the TPP-facing possible banning at any moment-still carried on pursuing its ideals. Huang argues that Chiang was already a "world-class thinker" in his ability to hold to his ideals while staying focused on reality.

In order to get the party into closer contact with the common people, in 1928 Chiang began a speaking tour of the island. He lectured on topics such as the policies of the TPP, farmers' and labor movements, reform of the education system, improving the police system, and freedom of speech, assembly, and publication. Huang tells us that "his lectures in this period were much more substantive than in the TCA era."

The TPP also established the "General Alliance of Taiwan Workers," and promoted local self-government and wider access to free primary education. In terms of techniques, the TPP began to use telegrams and petitions to international organizations to reflect Taiwanese public opinion, reveal government abuses, and put pressure on the colonial authorities.

The General Alliance of Taiwan Workers, founded in 1928, opened a new page in the history of labor activism on the island. Chiang Wei-shui's slogan, "Compatriots must unite, unity is strength," is posted in Chinese characters on the two sides of the entranceway. (courtesy of Chiang Sung-hui)

Striking a blow against authority

Among the many campaigns promoted by the TPP, the one opposing opium permits and one to reveal the truth about the Wushe Incident inflicted the greatest pain on the colonial regime.

While the Japanese authorities were in general quite strict in the regulations they imposed on Taiwan, there was one exception: They adopted a policy of "natural and gradual eradication" with regard to opium. They continued to issue permits to addicts, a policy long opposed by social activists, and new regulations promulgated in 1929 allowed more than 25,000 people to get new permits. The TPP in turn repeatedly appealed to the authorities to stop manufacturing opium and to compel addicts to reform, and filed a number of lawsuits. Eventually this story made papers around the world, and the League of Nations even sent an investigator to Taiwan to look into the situation. The governor-general was eventually forced to submit to international pressure to change policy, marking a major victory for the TPP.

The Wushe Incident led to another victory of sorts. In October of 1930, Atayal Aborigines, unhappy with the regime's long-standing policy of forced labor, revolted, attacking Japanese officials, police, and residents and killing more than 100. The governor-general mobilized a large contingent of police, soldiers, and artillery to attack the rebels, but the Atayal, led by Mona Ludao, occupied a high ridge and refused to surrender. The governor-general then resorted to the use of poison gas. Mona Ludao, and his men, seeing no hope, committed mass suicide.

Japanese colonial officials tried very hard to cover up the entire event. But the TPP sent telegrams to the Japanese government and opposition party, and also endeavored to get the news out to the international community. In the end, the governor-general was replaced.

By this point, the revolutionary nature of the TPP had created deep hostility in the authorities. A split in the party-with more conservative elements leaving to form the Alliance for Self-Government in Taiwan-gave the authorities the excuse they were looking for, allowing them to claim that the TPP had been taken over by extremists. In 1931 the newly installed governor-general ordered the party disbanded.

The Taiwan People's Party revealed the truth of the Wushe Incident to the world, forcing the Japanese governor-general out of office as a result. The photo shows a leaflet released during the incident by the Japanese calling on the rebels, all Atayal Aborigines, to surrender. (courtesy of Chuang Yung-ming)

Who needs a party, anyway?

After the dissolution of the TPP, Chiang Wei-shui issued a declaration in which he stated: "This order to disband can be seen as a glorious death in battle. No longer is there any need to organize the shell of a political party, because the party we want is banned by the government, while the party the government will allow is nothing but empty skin with no meat and bones." He felt that with public opinion behind him, he could be just as effective with no formal party organization, relying on peripheral organizations that had been affiliated with the TPP to carry on his "nationalist movement with a core made up of the peasantry and working class."

Tragically, Chiang Wei-shui not long thereafter came down with typhoid fever; he died on August 5th of that year, aged 40 years and five months. On his deathbed, Chiang called on his comrades to "unite and continue to struggle" to win liberation for their compatriots.

As Huang Huang-hsiung sums it up, "Over the course of his ten-year struggle, Chiang Wei-shui not only became a core figure in Taiwan's political and social movements, but gained a reputation among the people as 'the savior of Taiwan.'" When the newspapers reported his death, people were deeply shocked and saddened, with some even donning black armbands in mourning. An estimated 5,000 people attended his funeral, with the procession winding from Tataocheng to the mountains around Tachih, an unprecedented honor. "There is no other figure from the Japanese colonial era whose death caused such profound sorrow and sense of loss among the people of Taiwan," says Huang.

With the disbanding of the TPP and Chiang's death, the political and social movements in Taiwan lost their direction. Many TPP cadres emigrated to mainland China, the TCA survived but its educational and cultural work was very low-key and could only have an impact in the very long run, and the Alliance for Self-Government in Taiwan confined itself to rhetoric and wishful thinking. Later, as the influence of militarists in Tokyo grew, Japan tightened the screws on its colonies, and the decade of nonviolent Taiwanese resistance against Japanese colonial rule came to a close.

Looking back on this stretch of history, historians give the highest possible evaluation to Chiang Wei-shui for his influence on Taiwan's cultural enlightenment movement and his contributions to political and social reform. Under an oppressive colonial regime, his high level of consciousness inspired other Taiwanese to stand up and be counted, and his courageous, can-do spirit fills one with admiration even today. Is it not time that another generation of Taiwanese share in the collective memory of this man?

Chiang Wei-shui: A Chronology

1891 Born in Ilan County

1906 Enters Ilan Public High School

1910 Enters Taipei Medical School

1915 Graduates from medical school #2 in his class

1916 Opens Ta-an Clinic in Tataocheng

1921 Joins the petition campaign for a Taiwan elected assemblyFounds Taiwan Cultural Association, publishes "A Just Diagnosis"

1923 Taiwan Minpao founded in Tokyo; Taiwan branch established, with Chiang in charge "Social Order and Police Incident" occurs

1924 Imprisoned for the first time; studies extensively while incarcerated

1925 Imprisoned for the second time; continues his studies Sales of Taiwan Minpao surpass 10,000 "Erhlin Incident" occurs

1926 Chiang opens Wenhua Shuju (Culture Bookstore) Publishes "The Left-Right Debate"

1927 (Jan) Taiwan Cultural Association fragments Publishes "A Nationalist Movement Based on the Farming and Working Classes" (Jul) Founding of the Taiwan People's Party

1928 Creation of the General Alliance of Taiwan Workers

1929 Chiang leads campaign against opium permits

1930 Taiwan People's Party fragments, Alliance for Self-Government founded

"Wushe Incident" occurs

1931 Taiwan People's Party forced to disband by colonial authorities

Chiang dies of illness

Chart by Coral Lee based on information from Huang Huang-hsiung, A Biography of Chiang Wei-shui.

This commemorative photo was taken as Chiang lay near death. The sad faces of the comrades and family members surrounding him betray not only their grief over his condition, but seem to be saying that Taiwan's nonviolent resistance movement was also fast approaching its end. (courtesy of Chiang Sung-hui)

After Chiang's death his comrades-in-arms tried to publish The Complete Works of Chiang Wei-shui, but it was confiscated at the printer's by the Japanese police. The photo shows pages from the only remaining copy, the note by Chuang Tai-yueh. (courtesy of Lin Tsai-mei, wife of Tai Kuo-hui)

After Chiang's death his comrades-in-arms tried to publish The Complete Works of Chiang Wei-shui, but it was confiscated at the printer's by the Japanese police. The photo shows pages from the only remaining copy, including the foreword by Lin Hsien-tang. (courtesy of Lin Tsai-mei, wife of Tai Kuo-hui)