Brief History of the Taiwanese Association of America, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Chapter

Author: Binsiong Ou

A Brief Introduction of the Early Years of the Taiwanese Association of Pittsburgh

The Taiwanese Association of Pittsburgh was established in 1969 and has been operating for nearly half a century. Taiwan has Fucheng, Lugang, and Manka; in the United States, there is Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. In Taipei, the rivers merge into Tamsui River; Pittsburgh is called the city of three rivers. Pittsburgh is similar to Taiwan’s Manka in the 19^th century, because it is an important inland shipping port. In 1758, British General Forbes drove French forces that were occupying the land of the three rivers, and transformed Fort Duquesne into Fort Pitt, which is the origin of the name Pittsburgh.

Starting in the 1770s, waves of immigrants drove Conestoga wagons from the eastern United States over the Appalachian Mountain Ranges to Pittsburgh, the center for shipbuilding. They then continued West along the Ohio River, and so, Pittsburgh became the gateway to the west. The beginning of Louis and Clark’s expedition of the mountains and rivers of the Western United States started when Louis built a ship in Pittsburgh and sailed down the Ohio River on August 31^st, 1803, joining Clark in Kentucky on October 14^th. With its reliance on water as natural transportation, Pittsburgh become a major industrial town in the United States, especially important in the steel industry. Because of this, Pittsburgh was, at one time, the home to many company headquarters. Later, the city transformed from being a smoke-filled black town to being a very comfortable city to live in, home to the computer, technology, and advanced medicine industries. Moreover, it has a number of universities, including Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Since the 1960s, there have been many Taiwanese students who were attracted to study abroad in Pittsburgh; there are quite a few who graduated and found work here.

Taiwanese Americans across the United States have all experienced what it’s like to leave their hometown. Due to a feeling of homesickness and the desire to explore the possibility of creating an independent nation in their forefather’s homeland, Taiwanese Associations were established in one city after another, allowing Taiwanese communities to gather their strength. In 1968, Fu-Chen Lo earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In November of that year, he came to Pittsburgh for work, and in 1969, he co-founded the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association with Edward Huang, Daniel Ko, Chiung-hui Ko, and their young families. This group warmly looked over the Taiwanese students in Pittsburgh. At the time, Fu-chen Lo had bought a house on Penn Avenue, and so, until he left Pittsburgh to take a job with the United Nations in 1973, this house and its courtyard were the center of operations for the Taiwanese Association, as well as a wedding venue for Taiwanese students. Later, the Taiwanese Association began borrowing the use of venues from various universities and nearby churches and parks to hold events like their Mid-Autumn Festival party and Lunar New Year party. Other events included a dumpling party, ping pong and bridge games, symposiums on life matters, autumn maple leaf viewings, and speeches by famous Taiwanese figures, such as: Huang Hsin-chieh, Annette Lu, Li Chiao, Yang Ching-chu, Huang Chun-ming, and Kao Chun-ming. Of course, there were many more activities related to Taiwan. For example, when the Formosa Incident occurred on December 10^h, 1979, a symposium was held on the 15^th in Lawrence Hall of the University of Pittsburgh. The event attracted people from all walks of life, both Taiwanese people and Chinese Communist Party members. The seats were full, and even the aisles were packed with people. 18 months later, Carnegie Mellon Professor Chen Wen Chen was interviewed by the Taiwanese Chief of Police, who played a tape of the speech he’d given at that symposium. The next day, Chen Wen Chen’s corpse was found on the campus of his alma mater, National Taiwan University. This incident provoked demonstrations across the United States, including street demonstrations in the local neighborhood around the Oakland campus, which accused on-campus agents of committing evil deeds.

In the early years, the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association interacted with Taiwanese people from around the world, inviting Taiwanese Associations from different places, even the Taiwanese Association of Toronto, Canada, to come have a picnic and barbecue. The Association also went to visit other cities, going as far as Washington D.C. to the east, Cleveland, Columbus, and Michigan to the west (in the Midwest), and cities like Buffalo and Syracuse, New York in the north. Each time they had one of these meet-ups, there always had to be a softball game. The Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association softball team was quite famous and had many well-known players. Cheng Long Tsai, who had been the captain of the team many times, was one of key players in these games. In those days, the association usually split into two teams and practiced at Schenley Park or on the Carnegie Mellon Campus.

Though it has undergone numerous hardships, the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association has continued to operate through them all, persevering for nearly half a century.

Historical Details of the Association’s Founding Years

According to his memoir, From Taiwan to the World and Back, Fu-Chen Lo was a key figure in the United Formosans for Independence. His memoir mentions that he came to Pittsburgh to work in 1968 and left in 1973, and that he and other Taiwanese Americans jointly established the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association around then. The exact date is unknown, however. But, according to an interview Carole Hsu conducted of Fu-Chen Lo and his wife, there is an exact date. In the summer of 1968, Fu-Chen Lo received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and successful began work at Consad in New York. A few months later, the company transferred him to Pittsburg, so he and his wife, Ching-fen Mao, moved to Pittsburg in November 1968. They bought a house on Penn Avenue and got to know a number of young families in Pittsburg, and in 1969, they co-founded the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association. Since overseas Taiwanese students struggled with finances in those days, Fu-Chen Lo was happy to help them and opened his home. Overtime, his home naturally became the activity center for the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association, and it continued to be until they left Pittsburgh in 1973. I have also been to Fu-Chen Lo’s house on Penn Avenue, since I attended the wedding of my university friends, Cheng Long and Cecelia Tsai, which was held in Fu-Chen Lo’s home.

Historical Details of Past Association Presidents

The following list records the past Association Presidents in accordance with the historical data:

President	Vice President	Starting Year	Length of Service	Date of Handover
		1969
		1970
		1971
Mingchi Wu		1972
		1973
Chen S. Tsai		1974	1974-1975
Chin-te Lai		1975
Edward Huang	Yu-Ching Wang	1976
Rui-hui Lin	Ssu-yao Wu	1977	1977-1978
I-wen Tsai		1978	1978-1979	1979-3-25
Min-hsiung Hu	Hung-tu Ling	1979	1979-1980
Chin C. Lee	Shih-hsing Feng	1980	1980-1981
Wen-tung Lu	Tony Chen	1981	1981-1982
Mo-hsiu Yang		1982	1982-1983
Ssu-yao Wu		1983	1983-1984
Cheng-hung Su	Sheng-chun Kuo	1984	1984-1985
Chu-yuan Hung		1985	1985-1986
Chu-yuan Hung		1986	1986-1987
Chia-chun Liu		1987	1987-1988
Chia-chun Liu		1988	1988-1989
Chin-te Lai		1989	1989-1990
Chin-te Lai		1990	1990-1991
Mei-yu Kuo		1991	1991-1992
Mei-yu Kuo		1992	1992-1993
Rung-chung Lin		1993	1993-1994
Shu-ying Cheng		1994	1994-1995
Shu-ying Cheng		1995	1995-1996
Cheng-liang Wang		1996	1996-1997
		1997	1997-1998
		1998	1998-1999