Founding of Taiwanese Association of Austin

Author: Mu-Sheng Wu

We had left New Jersey with the best wishes from friends at a farewell party at the Roosevelt Park, New Jersey, and drove to Austin, Texas where it never snows.

At the time, Austin was a small city with a population of no more than 200,000. The University of Texas with 50, 000 students and the State Capital were the two largest employers in the city, which had few other economic drivers. At the University of Texas, there was a Taiwanese professor and 50 Taiwanese students.

When we arrived, there was no Taiwanese organization, although we had a Chinese Association controlled by the KMT. Many Taiwanese, who did not have much Taiwanese allegiance, were scared by “White Color Terror,” or wanted to see their “countrymen” (relatives and friends in Taiwan) in the future joined Chinese Association.

During the 1968 academic year, I was busy getting acquainted with the new surroundings and Taiwanese students. I also worked hard at enlightening Taiwanese moral consciousness and preparing for a good fight with KMT.

We had about 10 new students from Taiwan in the fall of 1969. All of them were excellent, liberal and concerned with Taiwanese future, although some did not have much Taiwanese consciousness and several even had loyalty toward China.

Soon after the semester started, I invited many of them for supper. I welcomed them to Austin and tried to befriend them. The Taiwanese group activity at Austin thus began. Those young men organized Taiwanese picnics every other month, even in the winter. They were so active that I could not keep up with them. My role was to join their activities, and provide them a place to meet, drink, and eat. My wife was always busy preparing food.

Their Taiwanese consciousness increased with every passing day. In less than half a year, they decided to establish a Taiwanese Organization in the spring of 1970. They asked for my opinion and also requested that

I be the President of the to-be established organization. At the time, they had sufficient courage to establish an organization, but none could stand up to challenge KMT face-to-face yet. I thought it was the time for a Taiwanese Organization, and accepted their request.

We founded the Taiwanese Organization at a church and I became its first President. About forty students participated in the event. At the time, KMT had many spies and had a strong hold of Austin, which was an isolated location. The 40 Taiwanese students banding together to form the Taiwanese Organization was extraordinary and required extra courage from each individual.

KMT’s spies were really everywhere. Soon after the Association was established, I received a registered and return-required mail from the General Consulate of Houston, the Republic of China, Chu Chin-Kang. He requested that I: 1) dissolve the organization, 2) be their spy, and 3) report the telephone numbers and addresses of my relatives and friends. It was a threatening letter, although politely written. Based on my own experience, they were always polite in writing and very harsh in oral communication, because the former would leave records. At that time, receiving such a letter was quite scary. To protect the dignity of Taiwanese, I did not have much choice so I ignored his letter and continued to fight on.

I kept the letter private until a couple of decades later when the matter would not affect our efforts. I did not wish to share it at the time because I was afraid that the letter might scare away members.

In retrospect, I think those young men, who are no longer young, should be proud of themselves to join the fight against KMT. In the future, some of their names were found their way on the black list and they could not go home for a long time. They had paid the price for being a Taiwanese with dignity.

Right now, their young images appear vividly in my mind, and their laughs will remain in my ears forever.