Taiwan Church News
3881 Edition
13 ~ 19 July, 2026
Weekly Topical
Visiting Rose Historic Site to Tell Amazing Taiwan Stories for the Children
Reported by Lin Yi-yin from Taipei
Attracting 90 students, a summer camp – “Happy Children and Teenagers” – was held at Taipei East Gate Church of Chi-Hsin Presbytery from July 6. On July 8, a walking tour was arranged to visit the Rose Historic Site – Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute and enjoy two dances: “Song of India” and “We Love Our Taiwan” choreographed by Mrs Tsai Jui-yueh. Ms Chan Tien-chen, a teacher of the Rose Historic Site, indicated that in the past decades, many people’s speech and thought was highly restricted due to an authoritarian censorship. Next she led the children to experience the free expression of their bodies following the musical rhythm on the venue.
Mrs Hsiao Wo-ting, chairwoman of Tsai Jui-yueh Foundation, said after the end of World War II in 1946, Tsai Jui-yueh returned to Taiwan from Japan by the ship named Daikyumaru and composed “Song of India” and “We Love our Taiwan” on the sea.
“The choreograph of ‘Song of India’ was regarded as the first modern dance in Taiwan. Its remarkable historical premiere was greatly assisted by a foreign student violinist on that Daikyumaru ship to play the musical piece of a Russian composer – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Expressing the homesick of an overseas student, the dance of ‘We Love Our Taiwan’ was originated from a song of Taiwanese student dormitory, ‘Black Drongo Dormitory’ in Tokyo. It is also a significant choreography of modern dance in Taiwan.”
She said frankly that at that time, even if the Taiwanese students who had traveled to Japan to learn the avant-garde arts, Tsai Jui-yueh was still heavily criticized and humiliated when she wore shiny clothes, heavy makeup and long hair to perform “Song of India.” Facing social criticism with a resolute will, Tsai Jui-yueh gradually changed people’s prejudice on women’s dance performance in the public, according to her.
She expressed that during the heyday of Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute, more than 4,000 people came to visit and assembly together every month. Therefore, Tsai Jui-yueh had been monitored by KMT agents for a very long period of time and had been searched frequently by the secret police. However, according to Ms Hsiao, Tsai Hui-yueh still bravely faced these dark pressures and carried on to campaign for the dance education.
In addition to visiting Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute, 90 summer-camp students were separated into two teams to go through the walking tour respectively. Led by Mr Chen Shun-fu, the chief curator, they started from MRT Shuanglian Station to visit historical sites such as Black Smith Street, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Blessed Imelda’s School, Taiwan New Culture Movement Memorial Hall, Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Park, MacKay Memorial Hospital and Shuang-Lian Church of Chi-Hsin Presbytery.
Rev Wang Bor-hsian, editor-in-chief of New Messenger Magazine, who assisted the summer-camp to visit Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute, briefed the event outline as a learning journey of Taiwan humanities with a series of character stories, mixing drama, games and Bible-themed courses, and leading children and teenagers by a walking tour through many historical sites to feel the fun of physical dancing and many more interesting things on the third day.
Reporting a more detailed contents of the summer-camp, Elder Huang Bor-wei of Taipei East Gate Church, indicated that many interesting courses were also introduced to the children and teenagers as follows: Taiwan’s Beiguan music and its musical instruments, Mr Nitobe Inazo – father of Taiwan’s sugar industry, the life and art of the Paiwan people, Mrs Tsai Jui-yueh – pioneer of Taiwan dance, the Chi-Chi Taiwanese Opera Troupe, and the humble witness of Dr Roland Peter Brown – a Mennonite missionary-physician serving at eastern Taiwan over 40 years.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
