Establishing the Professor Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation
Evan Ling (林富文)
After Chen Wen-Chen’s (陳文成) murder in 1981, Taiwanese people from across the U.S. spontaneously started a donation campaign. The main organizers at the time were Yung Hwa Hsu (許永華) in Ann Arbor and Chin-teh Lai (賴金德) in Pittsburgh. Later, Chen Wen-Chen’s wife, Chen Su-jen (陳素貞), decided to use the majority of the $50,000 donation to establish the Chen Wen-Chen scholarship as a permanent memorial to Chen Wen-Chen.
Accepting Chen Su-jen’s request, I established a non-profit organization in New Jersey. Following Yung Hwa Hsu’s advice, we then expanded the foundation’s mission to include studying Taiwanese history and culture, human rights advocacy, and fighting for political and economic equality for the Taiwanese people. I was also honored to serve as the first president of the Chen Wen-Chen Foundation.
Commemorating Chen Wen-Chen Through Education, Culture, and Recreation
Basically, the Foundation’s work was divided into three categories: education, culture, and recreation. The primary goal of the education branch was to establish scholarships, which had been Chen Su-jen’s original idea, and thus the one that proceeded first. For this task, Director Jyu Hsiung Fang (方菊雄) took on the responsibility of contacting the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association.
Professor Kim Lai Huang (黃金來) from Kansas was probably the greatest contributor to this effort. He single-handedly arranged the selection criteria and convened the review committee to complete this task smoothly.
As far as I know, the Chen Wen-Chen Scholarship is the first scholarship for Taiwanese people in North America. The scholarship has been offered for 8 years now, awarding scholarships to over 30 recipients. The goal of the culture branch was to remind everyone to continue caring for their homeland. There are three things worth mentioning in this regard: the Chen Wen-Chen Commemorative Book, the performance of Mending the Broken Net, and the bimonthly publication of Taiwan Culture.
Mourning Under a False Name
The commemorative book was published on the first anniversary of Chen Wen-Chen’s death. Yung Hwa Hsu collected the articles, while my wife and I took charge of editing and printing. In order to be able to publish the book in time for the Taiwanese American Conference – East Coast (TAC/EC), we asked a number of friends to help us proofread the draft.
Su-lien Li (李素蓮), Tien-ko Chen (陳天各), and Ta-wen Chen (陳達文) and his wife Wan-wan (婉婉) all drove many hours to come assist us. Cary S. Hung’s (洪哲勝) wife helped us type the book, while Fu Yuan Hsu (許富淵) helped print it. To elude the shadow of white terror, all of the authors and editors of the book used pseudonyms. Ten years later, in this tenth-anniversary commemorative book, most will probably now use their real names, proving that Chen Wen-Chen’s sacrifice has had an impact.
On the second anniversary in 1983, we decided to perform the stage play, Mending the Broken Net, at TAC/EC to present the true story of Chen Wen-Chen’s murder. All of the actors were Taiwanese people from New Jersey. Ming-kai Chen (陳明楷) directed the show, while Tai-shan Kang (康泰山) played Chen Wen-Chen, and Ching-chih Huang (黃靜枝) played Chen Su-jen. I also participated in the performance. I remember at the end of the performance, nearly everyone in the audience had been moved to tears, which showed how greatly Chen Wen-Chen’s murder had shocked the hearts of many Taiwanese people.
The bimonthly Taiwan Culture was started by Yung-hsin Chen. It has been in print for two and a half years to date, and one of its greatest contributions was the recording of historical facts about the 228 Incident. We must thank Editor-in chief Fang-Ming Chen (陳芳明) and President Maysing Huang (黃美幸), as well as Stephen Lin (林俊提) and Li-fa Hsieh (謝裡法), who also contributed much to the project.
The main project of the recreation branch is currently the Wen-Chen Cup Tennis Tournament. For this plan, we specifically asked Gichiong Khu (邱義昌) to join our Board of Directors. He spent a lot of time and effort designing an elaborate set-up for the doubles tournament. Thanks to his efforts, the Wen-Chen Cup Tennis Tournament is, apart from TAC/EC, the largest annual gathering of Taiwanese people in the United States.
The goal of the Wen-Chen Cup is to promote exercise and the cultivation of team spirit amongst Taiwanese people, and it also helped Chen Wen-Chen’s story continue to spread. At present, the Wen-Chen Cup Tennis Tournament has expanded to cities across the United States.
In regard to fundraising, the Foundation began making plans from the beginning, which included two stages and a goal of raising $100,000. The first stage comprised of arranging for Chen Su-jen to travel to a number of different cities to talk about the events surrounding Chen Wen-Chen’s murder. People around the country asked to meet Su-jen, but because her time was limited, she could only travel to the major cities.
The second stage of the plan arranged for Wen-Chen’s father, Mr. Chen Ting-mao (成庭茂), to come visit the United States. Ever since his son’s murder, Mr. Chen’s fight against the Kuomintang in Taiwan had been reported in detail by the media, so he was very warmly welcomed when he arrived in the States.
Only after Mr. Chen came to the U.S. did we learn that his goal in coming was to fundraise for a Chen Wen-Chen Center in Taiwan. In order to help him reach his goal, we gave up our own goal of $100,000. Chen Ting-mao raised $70,000 in the States, and with the addition of the previous $70,000, the Chen Wen-Chen Foundation raised a total of $150,000 from the Taiwanese community. We want to take this space to sincerely express our gratitude to all of the Taiwanese people who donated so generously and welcomed Chen Su-jen and Chen Ting-mao in their cities.
Congressional Hearings Give Birth to FAPA
At the beginning of the Foundation’s establishment, there were very few people who were willing to become directors of the Foundation, so we’re extremely thankful to those who were brave enough to accept these positions. We want to especially thank Tron-rong Tsai (蔡同榮). Due to his efforts, there were a number of congressional hearings that made the background of Chen Wen-Chen’s murder public, and the American government finally began paying attention to the actions of Kuomintang campus agents.
Mark Chen (陳唐山), Cheng Long Tsai (蔡正隆), and Chen Su-jen testified before Congress, and their testimonies were entered in Congress’ permanent records. After two congressional hearings, Taiwanese people gained confidence in their ability to lobby Congress, giving birth to the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).
It’s worth mentioning here one unsuccessful project which had been kept private until now. It occurred two years ago, when Tron-rong Tsai approached Ramsey Clark, a famous American civil rights lawyer, seeking to sue the Kuomintang for Chen Wen-Chen’s murder. A lot of information had already been collected, and many Taiwanese people had already promised to financially support the lawsuit.
Unfortunately, news may have leaked, because the Kuomintang indirectly threatened Chen Su-jen. Scared that her relatives in Taiwan might be secretly assassinated by the Kuomintang, she didn’t support the lawsuit. Her fear was completely understandable. For a year or two after the murder, every time she saw a thin, Chinese-speaking Asian man in his thirties, she had an uncontrollable panic attack, because this is what the three men that had abducted Chen Wen-Chen looked like.
The Americans who contributed the most to our efforts were President Richard Cyert of Carnegie Mellon University, and Wen-Chen’s colleague, Professor Morris DeGroot. In addition to testifying in front of Congress, Dr. Cyert published a number of articles in the New York Times denouncing the Kuomintang. DeGroot made a special trip to Taiwan to observe the autopsy.
Our friends in Congress included Stephen Solarz, Edward Kennedy, and Jim Leach. Famous political commentator Jack Anderson’s two articles were the most widely circulated, appearing in major newspapers across the country, these pieces greatly influenced American opinion. The worldwide publication, Newsweek, also published comments on the situation.
Throughout the process of establishing the Chen Wen-Chen Foundation, I met many comrades who had been concerned about Taiwan since they arrived as overseas Taiwanese students. Though none of us had great connections, we gave our money, time, and effort for our homeland.
Among these many individuals, I must mention Yung Hwa Hsu, who I talked to on the phone nearly every day about the establishment of the Chen Wen-Chen Foundation and the publication of the commemorative book. It wasn’t until three years later, when we were discussing a Taiwan Culture article titled “The Culture of the Salt Region” by Tien-chu Yang, that I realized we were both from the same hometown Jiali, and both alumni of Beimen Junior High School.
When I moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles in 1986, I lost touch with Yung Hwa. Sometime in 1988, I suddenly received a call from him saying that he was moving to Los Angeles. We finally met in person for the first time after seven years and became neighbors.
Remembering His Wish Forever
Chen Wen-Chen’s sacrifice helped accelerate the opening-up process in Taiwan, but we still have a long way to go. As I was writing this article, one of our friends, Lawyer F. S. Shen (沈富雄), was arrested at the airport – another case of political persecution. Many of the Taiwanese involved in fighting for Taiwan’s future have been blacklisted and are unable to return home, indicating that we still have much work left to do.
Ten years have already passed, and half of my hair has turned grey, but Wen-Chen still lingers faintly in the back of my mind. Sometimes, while driving on the highway, I hear his favorite songs, “Mending the Broken Net” (補破網) and “Hometown at Sunset,” (黃昏的故鄉) and I still cry. Until the political system and human rights issues in Taiwan improve, my heart will never be calm. Chen Wen-Chen’s death represents the suffering of the Taiwanese people; we will always remember the wish he once made.
We must deeply love our suffering Taiwan
We must fight for civil rights and freedom for her
We must allow our children to grow up worry-free.
January 25, 1991, Los Angeles
Sourced from Scattering Wheat Seeds 04/1991
Translated by T.A. Archives, from 8. 陳文成教授紀念基金會成立經過/林富文/2014/09
