Taiwan Cultural Association Site (Da-An Hospital / Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Park)

The Taiwan Cultural Association (台灣文化協會, Taiwanese: Tâi-oân Bûn-hoà Hia̍p-hoē, Japanese: Taiwan Bunka Kyōkai) was the most significant non-violent anti-Japanese resistance organization in colonial Taiwan. It was founded on 17 October 1921 (Taishō 10) during a general assembly held at Blessed Imelda's School (靜修女中, today's Jingxiu Girls' High School) in the Dadaocheng district of Taipei, with over 1,000 members present at the inaugural meeting.

THE FOUNDING AND CHIANG WEI-SHUI

The driving force behind the association was Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水, 1890–1931), a physician born in Yilan who had graduated from the Taiwan Governor-General's Medical School (台灣總督府醫學校, predecessor of National Taiwan University College of Medicine) in 1915. In 1916, at the age of 25, Chiang opened his Da-An Hospital (大安醫院) at Taiping Street (太平町) in Dadaocheng — renting three adjacent shophouse storefronts at what was then known as Tokushō-gai (得勝街) No. 64, later redesignated as Taiping-chō 3-chōme No. 28 (太平町三丁目二十八番地) after the 1922 address reform. This address corresponds to today's Nos. 31, 33, and 35 on Yanping North Road Section 2 (延平北路二段) in Datong District, Taipei.

Da-An Hospital served not only as Chiang's medical practice but as the nerve center of the Taiwanese cultural resistance movement. The Taiwan Cultural Association established its headquarters (本部) and Taipei branch here, making the hospital a hub for political organizing, intellectual discourse, and anti-colonial activism.

At the founding assembly, Lin Xian-tang (林獻堂, 1881–1956), the wealthy Taichung landlord and patron of the Taiwanese autonomy movement, was elected president (總理). Yang Ji-zhen (楊吉臣) served as deputy (協理), and Chiang Wei-shui was elected managing director (專務理事), effectively running the organization's day-to-day operations.

ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT

The Taiwan Cultural Association pursued a strategy of cultural enlightenment (文化啓蒙) rather than armed resistance. Its major activities included:

1. Public lectures (文化講演會): The association organized hundreds of public lectures across Taiwan, attracting enormous audiences — over 230,000 attendees were recorded in 1925–1926 alone. These lectures covered topics from hygiene and science to political rights, Taiwanese identity, and world affairs.

2. Taiwan Minpao (臺灣民報): The association used the Taiwan Minpao, a Chinese-language paper launched in Tokyo in 1923 and later published in Taiwan, as its organ. The Minpao became the voice of the Taiwanese self-governance movement and was widely circulated through reading clubs (讀報社) established throughout the island.

3. Cultural bookstores (文化書局): A network of bookstores was established to distribute progressive literature and foster intellectual development.

4. Summer schools and study groups: Educational programs were organized to raise political consciousness among ordinary Taiwanese.

5. Theater troupes (文化劇團): Theatrical performances were staged to communicate political messages to illiterate audiences.

Chiang Wei-shui famously authored "A Clinical Diagnosis of Taiwan" (臨床講義：關於名為臺灣的患者), diagnosing Taiwan as a patient suffering from "intellectual malnutrition" under Japanese colonial rule, prescribing education and cultural revival as the cure.

SUPPRESSION AND SPLIT

The Japanese colonial government closely monitored the association through its police apparatus. Chiang Wei-shui was arrested and imprisoned multiple times. The association faced increasing pressure, and in 1927 an ideological split occurred between the moderate cultural nationalists (led by Chiang) and the left-wing faction influenced by Marxism and the international socialist movement. The leftists gained control of the association at the 1927 general assembly, causing Chiang and his allies to withdraw. Chiang subsequently founded the Taiwan People's Party (臺灣民眾黨) on 10 July 1927 — the first modern political party established by Taiwanese people.

The Taiwan Cultural Association continued under left-wing leadership, increasingly aligning with labor and peasant movements, until it collapsed in 1931, when most of its leading cadres were arrested in the Government-General's crackdown on the Taiwanese Communist Party. Chiang Wei-shui himself died of typhoid fever on 5 August 1931 at the age of 40. His public funeral (大眾葬), held on 23 August 1931, drew an estimated 5,000 mourners — one of the largest funerals in colonial Taiwan — and was a powerful demonstration of Taiwanese national sentiment.

COMMEMORATION

The original Da-An Hospital building at Yanping North Road Section 2 no longer stands. The nearby Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Park (蔣渭水紀念公園), formerly Jinxi Park (錦西公園), was renamed in 2006 in honor of Chiang. The 5,060-square-metre park in Datong District, across from Shuanglian Elementary School on Jinxi Street, features a Baroque-style memorial archway modeled after Dadaocheng's historic streetscape, an entrance obelisk, and commemorative installations. Taiwan's National Freeway No. 5, opened in 2006, was also named the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (蔣渭水高速公路) in his honor.

The Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Museum (臺灣新文化運動紀念館), housed in the former Taipei North Police Station (臺北北警察署) on Ningxia Road — the very building where Chiang and other activists were frequently interrogated and detained — was opened in 2018 to preserve the legacy of the cultural resistance movement.

The site represents the birthplace of organized non-violent political resistance in colonial Taiwan and remains a symbol of Taiwan's struggle for self-determination and cultural identity.