In the middle of April this year, the papers carried lengthy reports about a father who broke his son's legs and forced him to go out and beg so the father could have money to bet on numbers. The news shocked society.

Shih Chien's research showed that some were forced into begging during the Japanese era as well. In Life Among the Society of Beggars he stated that problems making ends meet combined with unfilial sons and grandchildren or unharmonious family relations forced many of the old and weak to beg. Shih described other beggars who pretended they were old and blind to support the opium habit of their wives. At this point he quipped, "Strength, thy name is woman."

Beyond exploring why people became beggars, Shih also researched beggars' lives. In vivid and lively prose, he described the spread and movement of beggars, their argot and social system, and the relationship of beggars to women, children and gambling.

Seventy years ago it was a haven for beggars; today it's a home for the elderly. Inheriting Shih Chien's legacy, its basic nature of providing service to society hasn't changed.

A suave youth researching beggars

Born in 1899 in Tamsui of Taipei County, Shih Chien was the only son of a building contractor. After finishing at Tamsui Elementary School in 1911, he was admitted to the mechanics department at what is now the Taipei Junior College of Technology. At the time this was no small feat for an ethnic Chinese. In 1917, his excellent academic record got him a job as a technician in the Industry and Commerce Department of the Japanese Governor General's Office, where he started to research beggars and provide them with assistance.

Two years later Shih left his job at the Governor General's office. In the environs of what is now Tali Street in Wanhua he opened his "House of Love" in 1923. It took in beggars, opium addicts, lepers and other social undesirables. Besides giving them a place to wash, change clothes, get deloused and treat their diseases, he also taught them to read and write, and provided opportunities for them to work. For the rest of his life, Shih Chien would devote his energy to providing relief for beggars, writing such books as What Is a Beggar?, A Theory of Eradicating Begging, and Life in the Society of Beggars. He died in 1944, when he was 45.

These are the bare facts about Shih Chien. In recent years growing interest in researching "the native soil" has highlighted figures in Taiwan's history, Shih Chien prominent among them.

As a well-educated Taiwanese during the Japanese era and one of the few Taiwanese able to work within the Japanese government, he merits attention, but people are also interested in him because of his good deeds. "From today's perspective, he was willing to leave a good job within the Governor General's Office, willing to spend a life working on behalf of beggars. How can such nobility of spirit fail to engender admiration?" asks Shih Hui-chun, who works in the Taipei County Historical Research Commission and organized the "Shih Chien Memorial Exhibit."

This entire compound was the House of Love in 1936. Today half of it has been torn down to build a high rise. （photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center）

Socialist Shih Chien

This is how most know Shih Chien. But if you look in detail at what he did over a lifetime, you discover that describing him as a "very compassionate" or a "charitable" person is not enough. He was in fact a socialist. Take a look at a brief timetable of his life: He entered junior college when he was 12 and the Governor General's Office at 18. At 20 he left his job there, and when he was 24 he established the House of Love which he ran until he died at the age of 45. Nearly two-thirds of his life was devoted to working with beggars.

The documents relating to Shih Chien don't explain why a college graduate, a suave young man with an excellent job in the Governor General's Office, would give up all these advantages to work on behalf of beggars. The only clue they offer is a survey on beggars in Taipei City that Shih's department in the Governor General's Office carried out while he was working there. He was ordered to carry out the survey in Wanhua. This must have stirred his natural compassion, prompting him to work helping beggars.

Shih Chien's family was by no means affluent, and when he was preparing to work providing relief for beggars and talked things over with his father, he encountered forceful opposition. Later, after selling all his assets and persuading his family to give him assistance, he was finally able to create the House of Love to help Taipei's beggars.

The tablet whose characters were written by the literary figure Wu Kuei after Shih Chien died is still well preserved in the Love Relief Center's courtyard. Shih's wife, now in her eighties, serves as director today.

The House of Love

The relief station for beggars founded by Shih Chien 70 years ago survives intact on Tali Street of Wanhua--even if it has been transformed into the "Love Relief Center" which provides care for the elderly. Older long-time residents of the neighborhood, however, know, "The Love Relief Center is that place from where they would send out carts with white flags to find beggars all over."

Though many may have at least a sketchy understanding of the origin of the center, the key player in its history, the center's former director who died many years ago, remains a mystery down to the present. why did he leave a secure job and high position to throw himself into caring for beggars?

Let's go back to Shih Chien's era.

According to the analysis of historian Wang Shih-lang, the Japanese rule of Taiwan can be divided into three periods. From the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 until 1918, it was a period of pacification when the Japanese exerted severe military pressure and pacified the people.

A period of integration spanned the period from the end of World War II in 1918 until the Mukden incident in 1931. In these years, Japan rose to be one of the world's five great powers, and the foundation of its control over Taiwan was very firm. Support for Western democracy and national self-determination was sweeping the world. The "Taiwanese Cultural Association," which was closely connected to the resistance against the Japanese, was founded in this period. And the conflict between the sugar cane farmers and sugar companies, which had a great impact on intellectuals, took place in this era as well.

The period of "Japanification," when the government went all out in conscripting people on behalf of the war effort, followed the Mukden Incident of September 18th, 1931 and lasted until the retrocession of Taiwan to China in 1945.

In 1917 Shih Chien graduated from college and began working in the Governor General's Office during the smoothest period of Japanese rule on Taiwan. What was the social environment like at the time?

Before Shih Chien died he would often point to child beggars in tattered clothing and tell his second daughter Mei-tai that they were her brothers and sisters. Shih Mei-tai says that sponge bathing the elderly and holding their chamber pots doesn't faze her--perhaps because she saw so much of it when she was young.

Building Taiwan as a model colony

Lin Wan-yi, a professor of sociology at Taiwan University, points out that after World War I, European socialist thinking was sweeping the world. Milestones of social welfare, such as the German pension system, were instituted at this time. Japan was a major player on the world stage, and since the Meiji restoration its aim had been "to leave Asia behind and enter the ranks of European nations." Naturally, it did its best to keep up with world trends. Winds of social reform were indeed blowing within the Japanese government, as seen in policies about housing, occupational disability compensation, and workers insurance. And social welfare measures were adopted to help children, women and the elderly.

The central tenet governing Japan's rule of Taiwan was to govern it as a model colony. "The Japanese thought that they could take the results of governing Taiwan to show that they were more civilized than Westerners, that they had better abilities as rulers," Lin Wan-yi says. And the policies of "Japan and Taiwan are as one" and "extending of the internal borders" promoted by the Japanese during the period of integration had an impact on social welfare policies in Taiwan. Except for such multi-faceted programs as pensions and occupational disability compensation, which had not yet been extended to Taiwan, many Japanese social welfare policies--such as those regarding medical care, housing, worker loans and protection of children--were successfully transplanted.

Japanese humanists like Tobei Inagaki, who advocated love for all of humanity, saw Taiwan as a place ripe for social enlightenment. They came often to observe colonial society and lecture, and when they saw social inequities, they were quick to criticize. "This certainly had a big impact on Shih Chien, who was working in the Governor General's Office," Lin holds.

Shih was a man of action as well as theory. Before he died, he often helped to bathe and delouse beggars and give them clean clothes to wear. Don't look down on them, he would often say, because any one of th em could one day become emperor. （photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center）

An admirer of humanists

Shih once mentioned that he most admired the theory of the Japanese humanists Tenko Nishida and Kagawa Toyohiko. These were contemporaries of Shih, Japanese humanists who perhaps had a big impact on him.

Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) was a Christian social activist during the Taisho and Showa eras in Japan. From Hyogo Prefecture, he was baptized while a student at Tokushima High School and he went on to study at the Kobe Theological Seminary. In 1914 he went to study at Princeton in the United States. When he returned home, he went to the slums of Kobe, and with the help of friends embarked on a free medical service activities. He actively participated in the social movements of workers and farmers in the Kansai area, as well as carrying out missionary work and participating in the consumer movement. After World War II, he was elected to the Diet.

Tenko Nishida (1872-1968) was a religious figure who spanned the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. When he was young he went by himself up north, opening up land up for cultivation in Hokkaido. Later he served as a director for a company opening up land for cultivation in Ishikari, but because of the growing conflicts between the tenant farmers and the capitalists, he quit and passed through his next years as a vagabond. After reading a religious tract by Tolstoy in 1903, his doubts about the meaning of life were resolved, and from this point on he lived a life of ascetic self-reflection and contribution to society. In 1905 he established the Single Light Garden in the Yamashina area of Kyoto, and together with his students lived a life of devotion and begging for alms. During World War I, the Single Light Garden's believers grew and in 1921 Nishida's thoughts were compiled in a book, A Life of Confession. After World War II, he was elected to the Diet, and in his later years he upheld Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and global federalism.

Giving them money isn't as good as teaching them a skill, Shih theorized. But the skill training centers were stop-and-go, unsteady operations. （photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center）

Begging is a disease of modern civilization

In Shin Chien's work, one can also see the influence of the socialism of the day. In A Theory of Eradicating Begging, for example, he said that people did not fall into begging as a result of their own laziness or lack of determination. "Begging is the result of the fallen state and decadence of modern civilization and the blind following of others on the part of modern man."

In the declaration he wrote at the founding of the Begging Eradication Association, he asks about the root cause of begging. Trouble meeting basic living necessities is the major cause, he says, at the root of which is the lack of a social safety net.

Why should people face the problem of beggars? Shih believed that people should approach this social problem not because they have "charitable hearts" but rather because "society is a delicate organism. If any part of it encounters difficulties, the effects are felt by all of society. Social diseases borne by those at the lower ranks of society will result in repercussions for all of society, particularly the wealthy classes."

"Charity" isn't enough to tackle the problem, because so-called charity "if not purely the manifestation of a superficial charitable attitude, is a calculated attempt to get something in return." The result is that "those that appear on the surface most pathetic get the most charitable contributions, resulting in bizarre extremes where even government officials look with envious eyes on their incomes. Immersed in the 'marvelous profession' of begging, beggars don't realize that their lives have been taken from them. In the end, regardless of everything, their animal-like characteristics come to the fore."

To help beggars, first determine whether relief is necessary, he said. Second, understand that giving them money is not as good as giving them assistance to meet their basic living needs, which still fails short of giving them jobs. Giving the ill medical treatment is particularly important.

Teaching the beggars how to grind tofu and organize "the tofu shop" has its roots in the concepts of European socialists about giving the able-bodied the skills to make a living, so that they can regain their confidence. （photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center）

35,000 yen for Taipei's beggars

And so he founded the "Begging Eradication Society" and built the House of Love for beggars, supplying bedding and cooking utensils for them and establishing various skill training stations to teach them how to grind beans for tofu, raise pigs and weave cloth. He also brought in doctors to treat the sick, because, "hunger plus illness is why many fall into begging."

Lin Wan-yi holds that Shih Chien's ideas about helping beggars aren't far from the concepts of social welfare being discussed in Taiwan in the 1990s. The line of thinking being stressed is "working with them" rather than "working for them."

And many of his methods were taken directly from the West. The idea of giving them working skills (such as teaching them to grind tofu) comes from European socialists. Shih Chien went everywhere raising money, explaining why beggars fell into their way of life and how to best treat them with compassion. Based on his calculations of a beggar's daily expenses, he even set the "yearly expenditure for beggars" in Taipei City at NT$35,000 (a considerable sum when a sheng [1.8 liters] of rice cost 28 cents). If everyone were of the same mind and forcefully worked to stamp out begging, the public and private sectors would save lots of money.

"Shih Chien's conceptions were really a spark of something new in a Taiwan society still mired in conceptions about charity inherited from the Ching Dynasty," says Lin Wan-yi. "More than a social worker, he was also one of the first people of his time to look at socialist thinking."

Beggars are the result of an incomplete social safety net. The social ills on which Shih focused have still to be dealt with today. Attending a folk performance benefit carried out by social workers on behalf of the Love Relief Center, those who know its history have another level of feelings for it.

Lonely pioneer

In 1944, the year before the retrocession of Taiwan, Shih Chien died suddenly from a stroke. "Father died because he worked too hard and was over-anxious," says his second daughter, Shih Meitai. Although he put everything he had into trying to eradicate begging, the goal wasn't reached in his lifetime. The streets of Taiwan's cities and villages were still full of beggars even after retrocession.

The social welfare concept he constantly advocated was not completely accepted in the society of his time. In his books he repeatedly mentions that most people wave beggars off like flies or give them a few coins in a careless manner, actions that run totally counter to his way of thinking.

In traditional Chinese society relief work was done by wealthy individuals. Shih was an exception. Lacking financial resources and the management skills of today's social welfare institutions, he relied on his idealistic calls for help. He was constantly worried that the poorly financed House of Love wouldn't make ends meet.

Shih Mei-Tai, his second daughter, recalls, "My father was always asking me, "It's meal time, what are we to do? We don't have enough greens! There's only one fish! How can so many people share it?'" The House of Love served as many as 300 beggars, all of whom relied on Shih Chien's efforts. The difficulties can be imagined.

"When my father was alive, he would even borrow the money Great Uncle gave us kids to buy salt and rice for the beggars." (Shih Chien's uncle ran the famous Shih He-fa Lumber Yard of Tamsui, and was quite wealthy.) It wasn't until after the retrocession of Taiwan, when American support came pouring in, that the House of Love gradually got a more solid financial grounding.

"Shih Chien's thinking was advanced, but he was facing people in a traditional society whose minds had not yet opened. Even though he worked hard to overcome difficulties, he still couldn't avoid meeting a tragic fate," Lin Wan-yi says in conclusion.

In the Taiwan of the '90s, when people are constantly making calls for social welfare policies, is Shih Chien cheering from the grave that people have picked up his torch--or is he grumbling that it took 50 years?

[Picture Caption]

p.106

In 1934 Shih married his second wife Shimizu Teruko, who hailed from Kyoto. After Shih Chien died, she carried on his work at the House of Love, where she has worked for 60 years. (photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center)

p.107

Seventy years ago it was a haven for beggars; today it's a home for the elderly. Inheriting Shih Chien's legacy, its basic nature of providing service to society hasn't changed.

p.108

This entire compound was the House of Love in 1936. Today half of it has been torn down to build a high rise. (photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center)

p.109

The tablet whose characters were written by the literary figure Wu Kuei after Shih Chien died is still well preserved in the Love Relief Center's courtyard. Shih's wife, now in her eighties, serves as director today.

p.110

Before Shih Chien died he would often point to child beggars in tattered clothing and tell his second daughter Mei-tai that they were her brothers and sisters. Shih Mei-tai says that sponge bathing the elderly and holding their chamber pots doesn't faze her--perhaps because she saw so much of it when she was young.

p.111

Shih was a man of action as well as theory. Before he died, he often helped to bathe and delouse beggars and give them clean clothes to wear. Don't look down on them, he would often say, because any one of them could one day become emperor. (photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center)

p.112

Giving them money isn't as good as teaching them a skill, Shih theorized. But the skill training centers were stop-and-go, unsteady operations. (photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center)

p.112

Teaching the beggars how to grind tofu and organize "the tofu shop" has its roots in the concepts of European socialists about giving the able-bodied the skills to make a living, so that they can regain their confidence. (photo courtesy of the Taipei Love Relief Center)

p.113

Beggars are the result of an incomplete social safety net. The social ills on which Shih focused have still to be dealt with today. Attending a folk performance benefit carried out by social workers on behalf of the Love Relief Center, those who know its history have another level of feelings for it.

p.114

In 1926 Shih Chien established the "Begging Eradication Society." Its declaration of purpose calls for society's leaders to work to eliminate begging and outlines paths to take to achieve this. (photo courtesy of Taipei County Cultural Center)

p.115

In a mildewed pile of documents at the Taipei Junior College of Technology, they found Shih Chien's report card for 1914. He graduated fifth in his class. (photo courtesy of the Taipei County Historical Research Commission)

In 1926 Shih Chien established the "Begging Eradication Society." Its declaration of purpose calls for society's leaders to work to eliminate begging and outlines paths to take to achieve this. （photo courtesy of Taipei County Cultural Center）

In a mildewed pile of documents at the Taipei Junior College of Technology, they found Shih Chien's report card for 1914. He graduated fifth in his class. （photo courtesy o f the Taipei County Historical Research Commission）