左起梅心怡(Lynn Alan Miles)、王能祥、張文隆、謝聰敏、艾琳達
後排左起魯肇忠、黃志芳、林保華、艾琳達、陳明賢、城仲模、裘兆琳、?
前排左起施並錫、楊月清、魯肇忠夫人、謝聰敏、王能祥、薛惠美、羅榮光、張文隆、鄭英兒
後排左起魯肇忠、黃志芳、林保華、艾琳達、陳明賢、城仲模、裘兆琳、?
前排左起施並錫、楊月清、魯肇忠夫人、謝聰敏、王能祥、薛惠美、羅榮光、張文隆、鄭英兒
左起梅心怡(Lynn Alan Miles)、王能祥、張文隆、謝聰敏、艾琳達
Preface for Wang Neng-hsiang’s book.
Linda Gail Arrigo
December 24, 2011 Christmas Eve
Taipei
When I landed at Washington D.C.’s National
Airport on January 1, 1980, I had no idea how I could push a campaign for the
release of my friends and my husband --
the central figures of the Taiwan democratic movement, who had been
arrested en masse following the Kaohsiung Incident of December 10, 1979.
Strained and exhausted by the emotional impact of the event and a grueling
schedule of meeting morning-to-night with concerned Taiwanese abroad and
international media, I felt helpless to influence the unsympathetic attitude of
the U.S. towards those arrested and certainly currently under exhaustion interrogation
if not outright torture by its “Republic of China” allies. To be said, my
mother Nellie Amondson had put aside her teaching duties in San Diego to campaign
with me, and we were met at the airport by two dozen or more Taiwanese-American
supporters, but I did not know what would happen next.
The next morning, at N.H. Wang’s house, I
watched him patiently brief my mother for a two-week’s program of visiting the
offices of all the Congressmen and Senators, as well as the State Department. I
had never met N.H. before, and was surprised that such a slight and unimposing
Taiwanese man with accented English could make a mark on the powers in
Washington DC; but from his calm, systematic, and cheerful manner I immediately
sensed that he had dedicated himself to this difficult task many years since,
and his efforts had accrued many quiet personal connections. For two days he
walked myself and my mother around Capitol Hill.
This was more than just a casual effort for
him. He lived in an apartment building near the Capitol, and he put us up at
his apartment as well. We were continually visited by those long concerned with
Taiwan’s future, such as Darlene Myers and others whose understanding had been
cultivated over years by N.H. During this tense period, we also found a truck
with telephone company signs often lurking nearby and dogging our steps around
the Capitol – and then one morning men pulling on wires in the telephone box in
the wall in the hallway. It was not surprising that N.H. had long since been
refused renewal of his ROC passport, and become stateless. Apparently he had
not been intimidated into silence.
The efforts of N.H. and ourselves were
rewarded with a Congressional Hearing on February 5-6 on human rights in
Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines. I was able to enter a statement on
the Kaohsiung Incident and arrests into the Congressional Record, and Professor
Richard Kagan spoke.
N.H. had first assisted former Taiwan
provincial assemblyman Kuo Yu-hsin after the elder opposition statesman Kuo
left Taiwan in 1975; I had in 1978-79 been mailing materials from Taiwan on
behalf of Chen Chu to Kuo’s newsletter, without knowing it was actually a
production by N.H.
In later years I had opportunity to talk
with N.H. at length and understand how he had come to his position of effective
independent action, despite his parting of ways with the World United Formosans
for Independence. Still, at this moment of crisis in 1980, a broad spectrum of
Taiwanese-Americans came together.
When N.H. appeared in Taipei at Chen Chu’s
commemoration of Kuo Yu-hsin in 2005, I was
pleased he met my friend and collaborator in many interviews of overseas
Taiwanese independence activists, Chang Wen-lung. And I have been even more
pleased that their cooperation has now resulted in Chang’s writing the present
biography of Wang Neng-hsiang.
We cannot know now how later generations of
Taiwanese will look back on our efforts, whether they will feel we were
unsuccessful or misguided, and what challenges they may face in their own era. I
have wondered the same in recently narrating my own biography. But at least
here we record the dedication and commitment of people like Wang Neng-hsiang,
and let that example speak for itself.
Linda Gail Arrigo
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