Talking Taiwan: George Leslie Mackay: Canadian Missionary Iconoclast and his Contributions to Taiwan with Rev. Michael Stainton
On March 9th Taiwan Post will be issuing a stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay in Northern Taiwan. Mackay was unlike most 19th century missionaries. He has been referred to as the “son-in-law of Taiwan,” and was a forward thinker. He was one of the first to oppose the Head Tax imposed on Chinese in Canada.
To help understand who George Leslie Mackay was and the significance of his contributions, I’ll be speaking with Reverend Michael Stainton, the founder of the Canadian Mackay Committee. Reverend Stainton has worked for the last 25 years to promote the recognition of Mackay in Canada and on several campaigns for Canada Post to issue a stamp to commemorate George Leslie Mackay.
[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]
**A quick note to listeners about the audio quality of this episode. Unfortunately, there was a bad connection at the time of the recording that couldn’t be improved through sound editing. So, we’d like to advise you to keep your volume at a moderate level while listening to this episode.**
This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by the Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 and the Taiwanese United Fund.
The Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 was established in 2000 to promote Taiwanese and Taiwanese American arts and literature, and to protect and enhance the human rights, freedom and democracy of the people in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese United Fund is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences. To learn more about TUF visit their website http://www.tufusa.org/
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
How and when Reverent Stainton first learned about Dr. George Leslie Mackay
How Reverend Stainton was a student radical at York University and was involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement and interested in China
How Reverend Stainton became disillusioned with the friendship work with China that he was doing
How Reverend Stainton was initially reluctant to go to Taiwan to work with the Presbyterian Church in 1979
How the Kuomintang had cancelled elections in response to U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s switch in recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China (in 1978)
The Tangwai movement in 1979
How Reverend Kao Chun-ming, who was the guarantor on Reverend Stainton’s visa to Taiwan (in 1979) had gotten arrested for helping to hide Shih Ming-teh
How things in Taiwan were in chaos when Reverend Stainton arrived there in 1980
Upon arriving in Taiwan Reverend Stainton was assigned to the Aboriginal Student Center
At the time the Kuomintang believed the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was a cat’s paw of the Chinese Communist Party
Reverend Stainton was warned that he would be watched and under surveillance with his phone calls tapped and letters opened
How Reverend Stainton was asked to play the part of Dr. George Leslie Mackay in a play was put on for the 100th anniversary of the Mackay Memorial Hospital in 1981
In 1992 after Reverent Stainton had returned to Canada, he saw the importance of promoting the recognition of Dr. George Leslie Mackay in Canada
How Dr. George Leslie Mackay breaks the stereotypes of 19th century missionaries
How Joseph Steere a professor of Zoology at the University of Michigan who met Mackay in Taiwan in 1873 wrote that he observed that Mackay treated the Chinese as equals rather than an inferior race
How Mackay learned Taiwanese culture and language from his students
How Mackay accepted his students’ suggestion and arrangement for him to marry a Taiwanese woman, Tiuⁿ Chhang-miâ (aka Minnie)
How Mackay was criticized about his marriage and why he got married at the British Consulate
How Mackay told the Foreign Mission Board of his marriage only after he had already gotten married
Why Mackay is so beloved in Taiwan and is called the “son-in-law of Taiwan”
How Mackay’s upbringing influenced his values
Mackay was the youngest son of a Scottish Evangelical Presbyterian family
Mackay and his family had gone to Canada as refugees from the Sutherland Highland Clearances in northern Scotland because aristocratic landlords had pushed peasants off their land due to the English Industrial Revolution
Mackay along with other refugees had been sent to Oxford county which is present-day South Central Ontario in Canada
How highlanders (people from northern Scotland) were also looked down upon in Canada because they weren’t civilized Scots from the south
How the early injustice Mackay and his family experienced shaped him
How he learned frontier medicine and developed strong resilience from growing up in the frontier
The Zorra pioneers and how Zorra refers to part of the province of Ontario
How Mackay became known for pulling teeth and was able to gain the trust of local people in Taiwan but he was not a dentist or doctor
Mackay was given an honorary doctorate degree in 1881
Misconceptions about Mackay
How Mackay discouraged foreign women missionaries from coming to teach (sewing and English) in favor of having local Taiwanese women converts teach in his school
The great numbers of the Kavalan indigenous people who converted and joined Mackay’s mission
The ethnic revitalization among the Kavalan
How the Kavalan used a patronymic name system, rather than surnames, but under Chinese rule they were assigned Chinese names and surnames, so some Kavalan adopted Mackay’s Taiwanese surname “Kai” (偕) as their own
What has changed in terms of what is known about Mackay
Up until the 1990s much of what had been written about Mackay was hagiography
The first international academic conference on Dr. George Leslie Mackay that Reverend Stainton organized in 1997 and how it boosted the study of Mackay
How Mackay ended up in Taiwan and settling near Tamsui
How the Taiwanese called foreigners like Mackay and indigenous people “barbarians,” and this created camaraderie between Mackay and the Kavalan people
Reverend Stainton’s efforts to try to get Canada Post to issue a stamp commemorating George Leslie Mackay which have included two previous campaigns in 2001 and 2022
Comparisons between getting a stamp approved by Canada Post vs. Taiwan Post
In 2001 a stamp commemorating Mackay was issued in Taiwan
Why Canada Post didn’t approve a stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of George Leslie Mackay’s arrival in Taiwan
The issues that Reverend Stainton has with the stamp that Taiwan Post is issuing on March 9
Why Mackay’s wife was given the English name Minnie
Mackay’s lasting contributions in Taiwan
Mackay’s title of doctor was due to an honorary doctor of divinity
Mackay’s opposition of the Head Tax
Mackay’s lasting contributions in/to Canada
Woodstock, Ontario’s sister city relationship with Tamsui, Taiwan
Mackay’s intellectual curiosity and love of nature, astronomy, and botany
Mackay’s use of traditional Chinese medicine in his medical work
The complete Kavalan people’s bridal outfit on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, which was among the 16 crates of artifacts that Mackay brought back from Taiwan to Canada in 1893
Many of the items that Mackay collected are among the oldest collection of indigenous artifacts from Taiwan in the world
Related Links:
George Leslie Mackay Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/125042900859471
Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Rev. George Leslie Mackay Arriving in Tamsui, Northern Taiwan: http://www.heartfm.ca/news/local-news/celebrating-the-150th-anniversary-of-rev-george-leslie-mackay-arriving-in-tamsui-norther-taiwan/
A video dedicated to celebrating the friendship between Taiwan and Canada, and paying tribute to Rev. George Leslie Mackay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjXbax6dq3U
The Legacy of George Leslie Mackay: http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/2010-04/2010-04-221-rohrer.html
George Leslie Mackay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Leslie_Mackay
A monument commemorating George Leslie Mackay in Tamsui, Taiwan
York University: https://www.yorku.ca/
Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book: https://www.amazon.com/Chairman-Maos-Little-Red-Book/dp/B0046NEO0E
Tamsui (aka Damsui): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamsui_District
Aletheia University (formerly Oxford College): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aletheia_University
Canadian Council of Churches: https://www.councilofchurches.ca/
Tangwai movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangwai_movement
Reverend Kao Chun-ming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kao_Chun-ming
Shih Ming-teh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shih_Ming-teh
From Far Formosa by George Leslie Mackay:
https://archive.org/details/fromfarformosais00mackrich/fromfarformosais00mackrich
Chunghwa Post website: https://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/U_english/default.jsp
Mackay Memorial Hospital: https://post.mmh.org.tw/english/
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian_Church_in_Taiwan
Chinese head tax and Chinese Exclusion Act: https://humanrights.ca/story/the-chinese-head-tax-and-the-chinese-exclusion-act
The Royal Ontario Museum: https://www.rom.on.ca/en
Atayal indigenous people of Taiwan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atayal_people
Kavalan indigenous people of Taiwan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavalan_people
Tony Coolidge: Finding his Indigenous Roots in Taiwan (Episode 112): https://talkingtaiwan.com/tony-coolidge-finding-his-indigenous-roots-in-taiwan-ep-112/
Tony Coolidge Talks About his Work with Indigenous Bridges (Episode 113): https://talkingtaiwan.com/tony-coolidge-talks-about-his-work-with-indigenous-bridges-ep-113/
LISTEN to Episode 173: George Leslie MacKay: Canadian Missionary Iconoclast and his Contributions to Taiwan with Rev. Michael Stainton HERE
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