Origins of the Charity Organization

Visiting Cih Sheng Refuge
(Source: Shingshanhall website)

Established in:

End of 1968

Founder:

Mr. Lin Bingshan

Services performed:

Renovated hanging bridges, repaved roads, donations, purchased coffins, released animals, and built bridges

Branches:

Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization, Republic of China Chia-yi Charity Organization, Ho Ming-de Charity Organization

Origin story:

Onsite inspection
(Source: Shingshanhall website)

In 1954 in the Chia-yi region, doctors such as Hsu Shih-hsian, Chang Chin-tong, Huang Wu-hsiung, Lin Li-chen, Chang Nai-gang, and Chen Song-hsing inspired many local Chia-yi people with their altruistic work as doctors. Many more people engaged in charity and quietly gave, such as Lin Bing-shan, Liao Bao-yu, Chao Huang, Li Mu-chin, Chang Ching-he, Li Neng-san, Lai Ching-hong, Tsai Su-chun, Liao Chun-chi, and Wang Ting-chang all worked in charity to support the poor. In the early stages, this mostly involved repairing roads and giving rice to save the poor.

In 1968, more people began to participate, such as Mr. Chen Ming-te and Huang Chun-lan, Madame Red Bean, Kuo Chen Hsio-wen, Liou Kuo Hsin-mao, Li Kun-shan, Hsu Wen-yu, Wu Ying-hsiung, Wu Chen-ming, Chang Sheng-liang, Lu Ching-tung, Lin Peng-hu, Chao Wang-ken, Tsai Chen Li-yu, Li Bing-chao, Chen Pi-kuai, Su Lian-tsai, Wang Chuan-song, and Chen Kuo-chun, and the “Charity Hall” was established.

A view of work
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

Money for the repair of hanging bridges and building of makeshift bridges is evenly shared by personnel within the organization. Until 1971, when Huang Wu-hsiung and Mr. Lin Bingshan were told by friends that Shinong Mountain needed a bridge, the personnel discussed amongst themselves and purchased iron, wooden planks, and some bridge-building materials. They used weekends and brought other members, riding motorcycles, to bring their materials and tools to engineer the first Huisheng Bridge to completion.

After that, Yeh Chingmu from Shinong Village, Chongpu Township, Chia-yi County, told them that in Tengliaotsai of Shinong Village, there had been children who were taken by the stream in the rainy season. The members were moved and wanted to build a bridge here to allow local residents to use it. Mr. Chen Ming-de had civil engineering expertise and worked in waterworks, therefore he took on the burden of designing the bridge. This led to the birth of the second Renhui Bridge.

Onsite inspection
(Source: Shingshanhall website)

For this charity work, those who had need or felt inconvenience would contact the Charity Hall directly or indirectly, then the members would carry out investigation and measurements. The works were entirely conducted by hand. On weekends, the members would contact each other and divide the work. Then they would dig rocks, haul rocks, overturn stones, mix concrete, spray water, and nail the boards. The members accommodated each other and took care of each other. Even though it was tiresome, everyone felt a sense of accomplishment.

This group works from the heart and do not need supervision and delegation. They are fully self-motivated and each work of engineering begins with love. They give their money and effort to complete each work as much as possible. Later, Mr. Chen Shih-ying from the China Daily News was the first to report on this story. With addition of the families, friends, and neighbors of the members, many people heard of this, and the group membership swelled to over ten thousand. Until 1977, since Lin Bingshan was focused on giving rice to the poor, he took the “Charity Hall” name and left the organization. At this time, most of the members were still concerned with building bridges and paving roads. Later, since the Charity Organization was formed in Chia-yi, it was called the Chia-yi Charity Organization; the name was later changed to Chia-yi Charity Organization due to guidance from the gods.

 

(Reference resources: The narration of Director General and Chief secretary of Chia-yi Charity Organization and written by our group according to the research)