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Abstract:
Bahá'í activities in Taiwan and personal histories, 1952-1992. Includes earliest pamphlet published in Chinese.
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Chapter 1616. Bahá'í Literature in ChineseAs the Faith progressed it became increasingly important and necessary to have literature in Chinese. With this in mind, in 1958 the National Assembly appointed a Translation and Reviewing Committee. Mrs. Danielsen-Craig was secretary of the committee, and although she couldn't speak Chinese she was instrumental in getting the work done. Within two or three years several pamphlets and books were produced. The basic pamphlet first printed in Kuching was revised and reprinted in 1957. Mr. Chu, who did this revision, worked on the committee for several years after it was appointed. Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era was revised and reprinted in 1960. The committee printed 500 and gave one copy to every Bahá'í in Taiwan. They had about sixty left which were immediately ordered by other countries in South East Asia. It was decided to print an additional 1,000, realizing how great the need was for literature in Chinese. A new prayer book was printed in 1961 using prayers from the one printed in Macau and adding some. The smaller one was also available. By 1962 there were five basic pamphlets available in Chinese in Taiwan, translated from ones in English: The Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'í Answers, Basic Facts of the Bahá'í Faith, The Keystone, Bahá'í Teacher's Manual. The old version of Paris Talks by 'Abdu'l-Bahá was revised and 1,000 reprinted in 1963. It was printed again, 2,000 copies, in 1966. The New Garden was a new translation done by Mr. Tsao Li-shih printed in 1965. Also in 1965 another pamphlet, One Universal Faith was printed, 1000 copies. It was a good beginning. The Taiwan Bahá'í Publishing Trust was established in 1972, The number of books and the attractive quality of the printing is now well-known. 39
Some of the early pamphlets printed in Taiwan available by 1962. Bahá'í Answers (lower left) was translated in 1958 by Mr. Mason Yuan (Yuan Hien-hsien) who became a Bahá'í after being taught by Mrs. Miriam (Mother) Haney in Washington D.C. many years earlier. That pamphlet of 2500 copies was financed by the Taipei pioneers.
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METADATA | (contact us to help add metadata) |
VIEWS | 93890 views since posted 2000; last edit 2013-07-10 01:45 UTC; previous at archive.org.../sims_taiwan_bahai_chronicle; URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org |
LANG THIS | English and Chinese (Simplified) |
PERMISSION | author |
HISTORY | Scanned 2000 by Jonah Winters; Formatted 2000 by Jonah Winters; Proofread 2000 by Barbara R. Sims. |
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