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This forgotten father of Taiwan democracy sacrificed his comfortable life (he came from a rich family and had a PhD from the US in Chemical Engineering) to fight for Taiwanese independence in the post-WW2 decades.
In 1956 he was elected president of the Japan-based Republic of Taiwan Provisional Government. In some ways, he also sacrificed his Chinese-American wife and children. So, when his American granddaughter Kim Liao was growing up, Thomas Liao was almost never mentioned.
In this episode, John talks to Kim about uncovering her mysterious family history, the subject of her recent outstanding book: Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence.
(Note: John also recorded another episode with Kim focusing on her book – see Episode 6 of Bookish Asia with Plum Rain Press)
Cover shows (left) the flag of the Provisional Government of Taiwan, (right) Thomas Liao, the first elected president of this government-in-exile (based in Japan). All images via Wikimedia Commons.
Below: Birth name - 廖溫義. English name - Thomas Liao. Born in Tainan, Japanese Taiwan, 22 March 1910. Died 9 May 1986 (aged 76
Below: The national flag of the Republic of Taiwan, an entity established by Liao Wenyi -Thomas Liao in Tokyo, Japan, in 1956. It features a blue background, with a white sun and moon. It is also called the "Sun and Moon Flag."
Below: Group photo taken in 1956, with "General Commander" Liao Wenyi on the left in the front row.
Thomas Liao proposed that the Republic of Taiwan is the third national founding movement of a "Taiwanese Nation," after the Kingdom of Dongning (i.e. the Zheng Dynasty ) and very short lived Republic of Formosa.
In this episode, John talks to Thomas Liao's granddaughter Kim about uncovering her mysterious family history, the subject of her recent outstanding book: Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence.
(Note: John also recorded another episode with Kim focusing on her book – see Episode 6 of Bookish Asia with Plum Rain Press)
Below: Image of Kim Liao, courtesy of Kim Liao.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
