Tsai Chih-chan

Tsai Chih-chan was born in 1900 on Magong in the Penghu islands, which were occupied by Japan at the time.[1][2][3] A studious child, by age 9 she had become a devout Buddhist and a committed vegetarian.[1][3] She vowed never to marry and instead to focus on her faith and on supporting her parents, who gave birth to her after a long struggle with infertility.[1][2] According to biographer Wei Hsiu-ling, she likely did not obtain a formal Japanese education but instead studied Chinese literature with private tutors.[1]

Despite her modest background, Tsai became a well-regarded poet during the Japanese colonial period, with her work appearing in various publications from 1923 to 1937. In 1933, her work was featured in the Yingzhou Poetry Anthology.[1] Overall, she produced around 600 poems, frequently dealing with both her own struggles and experiences as a woman as well as Buddhism and Zen.[2] She also became a painter during this period, even traveling to study traditional painting at China's Amoy College of Art, now part of Xiamen University, in 1934.[1][3]

Tsai also worked as an educator, starting at the Chengyuan Temple in 1924, becoming the first female Chinese teacher in the Pengu islands.[1][2] Later that year, she left Pengu to teach in Changhua, aiming to "make [her] name known as a woman," as she wrote in a poem before her departure.[1] There, she established a Confucian school, which she named Pingquanxuan (平權軒; "Equal Rights Pavilion").[1][3][4] She also worked as a private tutor for the women of the prominent Wufeng Lin family beginning in 1927.[1][2] In 1932, she moved to Hsinchu to teach there, and she lived for a period in Hsinchu's Lingyin Temple.[1][2]

Tsai's economic independence and social status were unusual for Taiwanese women at the time, although her position as a celibate religious leader helped with her empowerment.[3][4] She was a firm believer in women's right to education and independence; a 1932 article in a poetry journal described her as having "determination to seek equal rights and freedom for women."[1][2]

After returning to Pengu in 1955, Tsai and her adopted brother sued to regain control of the Chengyuan Temple, which had been taken over by Kuomintang troops.[1][2] After they won their suit in 1957, she ran the temple's operations until her sudden death of a stroke the following year.[1][2][5]