Sep 5 - 7
9月5日 - 9月7日
12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
About the Program
How did Taiwan become their second home?
In the late 19th century, missionaries from Scotland and Canada travelled across the oceans to Taiwan, bringing evidence-based medicine inspired by the Scottish Enlightenment.
Together, they built the foundation of modern healthcare here. From Canada, George Leslie Mackay pioneered public health in the north, Dr. G. Gushue-Taylor established the Happy Mount Colony for leprosy patients, and Nurse Isabel Elliot advanced professional nursing education. From Scotland, two generations of the Landsborough family served in Changhua for decades, alongside female pioneers like Marjorie Landsborough, Dr. Jean Landsborough, and Dr. Elizabeth Mumford.
They learned Taiwanese, trained local medical workers, and devoted their lives to this island—treating the people not as strangers, but as family. This exhibition traces these deep connections between Scotland, Canada, and Taiwan. Step inside to discover a moving story of compassion that crossed oceans to take root.
Curator: Jay Hsu
The Changhua Christian Hospital Historical Museum is part of Changhua Christian Hospital. Originally established in 1998 as the Hospital History and Heritage Gallery, it was officially registered as a museum in 2020.
The museum's collection centres on the history of Changhua Christian Hospital and preserves significant artifacts, archival documents, and historical records related to the medical missionary work of the British Presbyterian Church in Taiwan since the nineteenth century. Through these collections, the museum presents the intertwined history of faith, medicine, and local communities, while tracing the development of Western medicine, public health, nursing education, and social welfare in Taiwan.
The museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, interpretation, and exhibition of medical heritage. It actively advances the preservation and study of Taiwan's medical and cultural history through educational programs, exhibitions, and collaborations with institutions in Taiwan and abroad. By sharing its collections and research, the museum seeks to deepen public understanding of the history of Changhua Christian Hospital and the lasting contributions of British Presbyterian medical missions to Taiwan's healthcare, education, and social development.
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TAIWANfest Vancouver is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.