Christianity in Taiwan: From 'Eye-Gouging' Rumors to a Declaration for a New and Independent Nation

30-second overview: The development of Christianity in Taiwan is a long marathon from "misunderstanding" to "coexistence." Nineteenth-century missionaries used the approach of "Bible in one hand, dental forceps in the other" to open the doors of society — George Leslie Mackay alone pulled more than 21,000 teeth. After surviving the Shinto shrine pressure of the Japanese colonial period and the US-aid "flour church" relief years of the postwar era, this force ultimately turned political under martial law: the Presbyterian Church issued a Human Rights Declaration at the risk of imprisonment, becoming an indispensable voice in Taiwan's democratization. And in the contemporary era, young foreign missionaries in white shirts riding bicycles have become another distinctive sight on Taiwan's streets.

On June 16, 1865, Scottish doctor James Laidlaw Maxwell (馬雅各) rented a house on Kansi Street (看西街) in Tainan — the front half for preaching, the back half for medicine. This was Taiwan's first Western clinic, yet it lasted only 23 days. Rumors spread through the capital city that these "red-haired barbarians" would gouge out people's eyes and hearts to make medicine; an angry crowd surrounded the clinic and Maxwell was forced to flee to Cihou in Kaohsiung.¹

This "eye-gouging" farce was Christianity's real opening in Taiwan.

Bible in One Hand, Dental Forceps in the Other

If Maxwell was cutting his path into southern Taiwan with a surgeon's scalpel, then the pioneer of northern Taiwan, George Leslie Mackay (馬偕), was doing it with a pair of dental forceps. Mackay arrived in Tamsui in 1872 and found that Taiwanese people of the time suffered greatly from toothaches with nowhere to turn. He began, while traveling to preach, to first sing hymns in open spaces and then to pull teeth for local people free of charge.²

According to Mackay's 1895 published autobiographical account, in thirty years in Taiwan he personally extracted more than 21,000 teeth.³ This strategy of "first relieving physical suffering, then conveying the gospel of the soul" was extremely effective. The extraction tools were even crafted by Taiwanese blacksmiths following Mackay's specifications. Medical services not only reduced popular resistance to the "foreign religion" but built deep trust for Christianity at the grassroots level.

📝 Curator's note: In an era without anesthesia, 21,000 teeth are not just a number — they represent 21,000 moments of the most direct, most painful, and most profound connection with the local people.

The "Fumie" of the Japanese Colonial Period: The Cross Versus the Rising Sun

Entering the Japanese colonial period, Christianity faced institutionalized challenges. In the 1930s, as Japanese militarism rose, the Governor-General's Office promoted the Kominka Movement (皇民化運動), requiring all religious organizations on Taiwan to participate in Shinto shrine worship. For Christians who held to "you shall have no other gods before God," this was an enormous test of faith.

At the time, Tainan Presbyterian Middle School (now Chang Jung High School) faced the ordeal of its principal being dismissed and its missionaries expelled because it refused to lead students to worship at Shinto shrines.¹¹ To survive, some churches were forced to define shrine visits as a "non-religious" act of "national etiquette" — a compromise that later scholars described as a modern form of "fumie" (the Japanese colonial practice of forcing Christians to tread on images of Christ to prove they were not believers).¹² During this period, the churches survived in the cracks — and in doing so, forged the resilience that would later be turned against authoritarian power.

US Aid and the "Flour Church": A Gospel That Fed Stomachs

In the early postwar years, Taiwan faced extreme scarcity. During the US aid period from 1951 to 1965, Christianity and Catholicism became important channels for distributing relief supplies. Many Taiwanese people at the time went to church not to hear sermons but to receive flour, powdered milk, soybean oil, and used clothing printed with the "Sino-American Cooperation" handshake image.¹³

"Do the service, get the flour" became a shared memory of that generation; Christianity accordingly came to be mockingly called the "flour church" (麵粉教).¹⁴ Although some of those who came for supplies left the church when the aid stopped, this period genuinely brought Christianity into Taiwanese grassroots households and even changed Taiwanese dietary habits (as in the wider spread of noodle culture).

Bicycle Silhouettes Along Country Lanes

In an era of limited transportation, bicycles were the missionaries' "gospel vehicles" for reaching rural areas. In Taitung, Dr. Frank Dennis (譚維義), who founded the Taitung Christian Hospital, often rode a secondhand motorcycle or bicycle to weave along the eastern coast in the early days. Local people recall that when Dr. Dennis rode a bicycle rather than a motorcycle, it was usually because he had saved the gasoline money to help the poor.⁹

In Puli, Nantou, the Norwegian "Puli Grandpa," Bjarne Gislefoss (徐賓諾), was the very model of cycling ministry. He would often ride his bicycle along Puli's rural paths to look after children with polio and orphans.¹⁰ For many older Taiwanese, these tall, blond, blue-eyed foreigners pedaling along on bicycles and speaking halting Taiwanese Hokkien or indigenous languages were the warmest embodiment of Christianity.

There is also another group seen on Taiwan's streets: young foreign missionaries in white shirts, black trousers, and safety helmets, traveling in pairs on bicycles through large and small streets — missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church).¹⁵ They typically come from Utah in the United States, volunteer to serve in Taiwan straight after high school, and work hard to achieve fluency in Chinese, becoming a distinctive presence on Taiwan's city and country roads.¹⁶

From the Altar to the Streets: The Political Thunderclap of 1977

In the second half of the twentieth century, the character of Christianity in Taiwan underwent a dramatic shift. Churches affiliated with the National Chinese-speaking Christianity that had come with the Kuomintang generally supported the party-state; yet the Presbyterian Church, which had spent a century cultivating Taiwan at the grassroots level in the local languages, gradually bound its fate to that of the Taiwanese people.⁵

On August 16, 1977, as the United States appeared likely to sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China and society was gripped by panic, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan issued a Human Rights Declaration that shook the entire country. The declaration explicitly stated: "The future of Taiwan should be determined by the 17 million inhabitants of Taiwan," and urged the government to "make Taiwan a new and independent nation."⁶ This was the first time under martial law that a local organization had publicly raised the call for Taiwan's independence; church leaders including Rev. Kao Chun-ming subsequently went to prison for it.

Modern Challenges: When Conservative and Progressive Meet in Church

By the twenty-first century, Christianity in Taiwan faced new internal splits. The 2024 church census showed that the proportion of Christians in Taiwan stood at approximately 3% to 4% and was trending downward.⁷

The more visible challenge came from social issues. Over the past decade, Taiwanese churches were caught in fierce debate over "marriage equality." While there were voices within the Presbyterian Church in support of gender equality, most conservative churches (such as Bread of Life Christian Church and Mandarin Church) became core forces in the movement opposing same-sex marriage.⁸ This shift in image — from "driver of democracy" to "culturally conservative force" — has also prompted a reassessment by younger generations of the church's role.

📝 Curator's note: The history of Christianity in Taiwan is an evolutionary story constantly pulled between "foreign" and "local," "medical" and "political," "conservative" and "progressive."

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