Episode Details

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A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

In this episode of Talking Taiwan, I welcome back Reverend Michael Stainton to talk about his time in Taiwan and work with the indigenous people of Taiwan. Much of the time he spent in Taiwan was during the martial law era (before 1987) and he gives an interesting account of what Taiwan was like at the time.

Reverend Stainton is the President of the Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada and the Founder and Director of the Canadian Mackay Committee. We had Reverend Stainton on as a guest previously (in episode 173) to talk about Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay's contributions to Taiwan.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women's Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

1. to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women's dignity,
2. to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,
3. to fully develop women's potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,
4. to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,
5. to reach out and work with women's organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• In the 1970s, while Chiang Kai-shek was President of Taiwan Chinese Communist materials and materials from China were labeled "banditry materials" at the Stanford Center's library
• Students could access the "banditry materials" but were required to sign out and promptly return them because the materials had to remain on premises
• The Garrison Command would periodically stop by the library to check to make sure none of the "banditry materials" was missing
• How the death of Chiang Kai-shek was covered by the three television stations in Taiwan
• How Taiwan was a totalitarian police state in the 1970s
• What happened when Reverend Stainton was sent to Taiwan as a missionary in 1980 to work with the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan
• Reverend Stainton's work as the Director of the Taipei Aboriginal University Student Center
• How students of the Taipei Aboriginal University Student Center were required to report to the political commissary what Reverend Stainton was teaching them
• How Reverend Stainton tried to encourage the aborigine students to think about their identity and history by inviting various speakers such as local politicians and an academic who had critiqued the myth of Wu Feng (who was beheaded by the Tsou aborigine tribe)
• How the police were always watching and Reverend Stainton's mail was opened and censored (during Taiwan's martial law era)
• What happened when the police and garrison command arrived to break up a birthday party that students were having at the Taipei Aboriginal University Student Center
• How Reverend Stainton knew that his phone was being tapped
• Some students from the Taipei Aborigine University Student Center went on to become leaders and politicians including Icyang Parod who is the Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP)
• In 1982 Reverend Stainton switched to doing work in a rural aboriginal development in Wulai
• How Reverend Stainton helped to uncover embezzlement by the director of the Taip