The Immaculate Conception of Nanxing - The dream and initiative of a paiwan community

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In Nanxing, a paiwan community in southern Taitung, the church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. His history begins with the initiative of Liu Zhang, a local leader who personally sought a priest in Taitung, and continues through three generations of buildings erected since 1954.

The Initiation of Liu Zhang

The National Cultural Memory preserves the memory of Liu Zhang, a Paiwan leader of Nanxing. In 1953 he travelled to Taitung for health reasons, met the Catholic presence and went to the small church on Fujian Road to invite Father Jakob Hilber to visit his community.

Local oral history adds an inner element: Liu Zhang would have dreamed that a force called him to seek a priest. Medical travel and sleep do not need to be presented as rival versions. One describes the verifiable circumstances of the encounter; the other retains the way in which the community spiritually interpreted that decision.

The Catholic Beginning of the Dawu Region

With the help of Liu Zhang, Jakob Hilber established in 1954 the first Catholic church in the Dawu area. An academic study on the Belén Missionary Society confirms the invitation of a Paiwan leader and recognizes Nanxing as the point from which the regional network was subsequently extended.

The relationship between the Liu and Hilber families continued for years. The sources remember a deep friendship and the priest's desire to be buried in Nanxing. This memory is part of the local link, but it should not be used to hide cultural differences or present the conversion of a whole community as a simple or uniform decision.

Three generations of church

The first place of worship in 1954 was replaced in 1956, during the service of Father Otto Hurni, by a teja-covered building. Decades later a third construction was prepared.

The National Museum of Prehistory conserves nineteen plans of the project carried out between 1997 and 1999 by brother Julius Felder. The liturgical space was designed with wide-open side walls to the altar, a main window for lighting it and side holes that favour a bright interior.

The third church was completed and the August 12, 2000. The preserved planes allow you to know not only the final appearance, but the spatial and climate reasoning that guides your design.

More than a building

The initial Catholic presence was accompanied by agricultural and hydraulic works and a clay brick factory. These initiatives are part of local economic history, although they must be valued from the voices of those who worked and lived their consequences, not just from the biography of religious leaders.

The current church continues to be integrated into the Dawu network. No updated liturgical schedule has been located, so this page does not mean a regular celebration without confirmation of the parish.

The Immaculate: primacy of grace

The Immaculate Conception means that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her existence by a unique grace of God and by virtue of the redemption made by Jesus Christ. It does not refer to the virginal conception of Jesus.

John Paul II explained that Mary is the first of the redeeming work: the grace of Christ acted in it in advance. His free "yes" responds to a gift that precedes it. This is why this feast does not celebrate racial, cultural or moral superiority, but the mercy of God able to fully renew the person.

The memory of Liu Zhang's dream can dialogue with this mystery without the Church appropriating Paiwan spirituality. The Christian faith discerns every call in the light of Christ, while respecting that dreams have their own senses within community traditions and biographies.

Location and correction of the address

GCatholic identifies the church in Nanxing Village 53 and provides the corresponding territorial code. The cultural record publishes the coordinates 22.3581883, 120.881473which point to the same building, but its postal field mistakenly copies the direction of the parish of Dawu.

El mapa usa las coordenadas oficiales y la dirección individual de GCatholic. De este modo se evita enviar al visitante a Bao’an Lane, situado varios kilómetros al norte.

To visit

It is a community church and cultural registration does not guarantee permanent openness. It is appropriate to contact the parish of Dawu before moving. The visit must respect the cemetery, family spaces, celebrations and any indication of the Paiwan community about photography or access.

Prayer to the Immaculate Conception of Nanxing

Mary Immaculate, she accompanies Nanxing and the Paiwan families who keep their memory. Teach us to listen to God's calls with humility, to discern them in Jesus Christ and to respect the voice of each community. Bless those who raised the three churches, keep the elders and the young, and make this place a house of truth, reconciliation and service. Amen.

Sources consulted

• National Cultural Memory: Liu Zhang, oral history, three temples and coordinates.
• GCatholic: title, year, direction and pastoral dependence.
• Study on the Missionary Society of Bethlehem: Paiwan invitation and expansion from Nanxing.
• National Museum of Prehistory: plans and architecture of the present temple.
• Diocese of Hualien: the pastoral network of Dawu.
• St. John Paul II: the Christological sense of the Immaculate Conception.

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