Abstract
The evacuation of KMT government from Mainland China in 1949 contributed to the dissemination of Catholicism in Tao-Yuan. The first-generation missionaries in Taoyuan were banished by China Communist Party, and many converts followed them to get to Taiwan. For indigenous people in Taoyuan, Catholicism was a religion of foreigners as well as that of Mainlanders. In this situation, Catholic missionaries had to adjust themselves to local context, and there might be conflicts. The author collected parish registries, missionary reports and commemorative albums of four parishes (Fushing Village, Luchu County, Ping-Jen City, and Yang-Mei City) and interviewed Fathers, nuns and converts to reconstruct works of Catholic missionaries in Taoyuan. At the beginning, Catholic missionaries distributed milk powder, food, and clothes to attract people. However, once the converts could not get material, they would not go to church again. With the transformation of Taiwan society, Catholic missionaries sought out new strategies to preach. To illustrate the enculturation of Catholicism to Ho Lo, Hakka, Mainlander, and Aborigine subcultures, the author observed Catholic missionaries’ attitudes toward Utux, ancestor worship of Han people, medical missionary, and Hakka ethnicity. The author anticipated that this thesis contributed to Catholic missionaries in the future and to the collection of oral histories of the first generation converts and missionaries in Taoyuan.