The 1983 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service

BIOGRAPHY of Su Nan-cheng

SU NAN-CHENG was born in Tainan January 14, 1936. His family had lived in this oldest city on the island of Taiwan for many generations. The ancestors of his father, Su Jui-in, had come from the mainland Chinese province of Fukien five generations ago and the family of his mother, Chen In-yeh, only one generation later. Raised to the age of nine under Japanese rule, SU learned three languages, the Japanese of the occupiers, the Taiwanese or Amoy dialect of his family and, after the island was returned to Chinese control in 1945, the Mandarin Chinese taught in school.

From a relatively early age SU was conscious of a sense of nationalism. He learned to respect his Chinese origins and to long for freedom from a foreign culture. He had a more practical motivation as well. During World War II the average Taiwanese was considered a third class citizen. First class consisted of the Japanese and second class was made up of those who took Japanese names and collaborated with their conquerors. When food had to be rationed, the amount received was determined by class, with the first class receiving the preponderance.

SU's family was poor. His father was a vendor who sold noodles and soya milk from a small street stall, and his mother was a housewife. Neither parent had received much education, but both wanted more for SU NAN-CHENG, their eldest, and his three younger brothers.

SU attended Tainan Teachers' College Primary School and in 1950 entered the upper middle class Tainan Chang-Long Christian (Junior and) High School. To pay for this education he assisted his father mornings and evenings. His classmates looked down on him for being a street vendor and he frequently had to fight with them to achieve respect and recognition. His father impressed upon him that, even though he was poor in material possessions, he need not be poor in mind or spirit and encouraged him to equal his schoolmates in academics and to excel in sports. An intelligent and robust youth, SU maintained high grades and became a star rugby player. Eventually he was recognized as a class leader and achieved a reputation for being tough but fair. Based on his own experience of discrimination, his ambition from high school on was to help the underprivileged by becoming a civic leader. He took seriously the teachings of the great Chinese revolutionary philosopher Sun Yat-sen, and relates that he wept with emotion when he first read Sun's inspiring Three Principles.

Although a boy from a family as poor as his was not expected to attend college, his mother borrowed money to pay his school fees and in 1954 SU entered National Cheng Kung University in Tainan. He became an outstanding student leader, while continuing to shine as a rugby player in intercollegiate competition. To help pay his expenses he worked at night at a radio station and developed his own program, playing classical Chinese music and discussing current events and scientific developments. The show was popular and he received many letters which he answered on the air, developing a real rapport with his listeners.

In 1959 SU received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Statistics. He immediately entered the military for two years of compulsory service as a Marine officer, and was stationed at a base between Tainan and Kaohsiung. Upon his release from the military he assumed the responsibility of the first-born son to help support the family and put his younger brothers through school. He therefore took three concurrent teaching jobs—instructing in mathematics at Tainan Agricultural College and at a girls' high school, and in business subjects at a commercial high school. Constantly seeking ways to further supplement his income he was for five years Sales Manager for the Taiwan Times Daily News. As an outgrowth of this job he opened a travel service for tourists and started the first professional advertising agency in Taiwan.

As his younger brothers completed their educations and he was released from his responsibility to them, SU sought to satisfy his ambition to become a civic leader. In 1963, at the age of 27, he ran for a seat on the City Council as an Independent, because the ruling Kuomintang Party (KMT), of which he was a member, considered him too young and inexperienced to give him party support. He lost the election by such a narrow vote that when he ran again in 1967 the KMT endorsed him.

In his first term on the council SU began to develop the style which would later become his hallmark. Impatient with the conservative practices of government officials, he established an "open-door" policy and invited his constituents to come directly to him for help. He listened attentively to their problems, acted as quickly as possible to assist them, or referred them to the appropriate municipal office for action. Intimately aware of the needs of the people, he talked constantly at council meetings of expanding services to the public and of projects to improve the city. He soon realized, however, that as a councilman he was hemmed in by the authority of the mayor and the inertia of the administration. He resolved, therefore, to seek mayoral authority himself in order to put his ideas into effect.

In 1972, after again failing to obtain Kuomintang support because he had not engaged in party politics, he left the party and ran as an Independent for the office of Mayor of Tainan. He lost by a slim margin, but as the race for mayor preceded the elections for the council, he was able to recapture his council seat for a second term. SU took his loss in the mayoralty race philosophically, believing that it had been a good political education for him. When he ran against the incumbent in 1977, again as an Independent, he outlined a platform which included 50 explicit reforms, programs or projects which he proposed to carry out. In order to reach all voters, he campaigned from house to house. His supporters included schoolmates from university days and many of the Tainan businessmen and citizens with whom he had come in contact as a councilman. As before, his campaign was open and honest. No votes were bought and a list of all contributions—down to a pack of cigarettes—was published, along with the donor's name. He won with 77 percent of the popular vote to become the youngest mayor in Tainan's history.

When SU assumed office Tainan was a shadow of its former splendor. Although it has been the capital and cultural center of Taiwan from 1663 to 1885, it was in September 1977 a relatively unmodernized "urban-village area," pressed by a growing population which would double in size from 1968 to 1983 to its present 620,000 inhabitants. Conservative in attitude and slow to change, the city had been outstripped in development by other cities on the island, in particular by the capital, Taipei, and the neighboring port city of Kaohsiung. Tainan's roads were inadequate, its housing and factories deteriorating and its industries and city amenities in need of modernization and expansion.

As mayor, SU proposed to effect the changes he had been talking about in his 10 years on the City Council. First he wanted to make the municipal government accessible to all the people; to convert the traditional paternalistic but unapproachable executive and rigid, sometimes haughty, bureaucracy, into an active, cooperative and accessible governing body, receptive and eager to serve the needs of the public. While anxious to preserve the city's history and to emphasize its Chinese cultural heritage, SU wanted to remake the city by expanding public services; encouraging new non-polluting industries, and stimulating cultural and athletic activities. His vision was of a clean and quiet city center—retaining its historic and cultural identity—surrounded by modern satellite communities close to industrial zones which would provide new opportunities for livelihood. At the same time he wished to encourage the commercial, agricultural and fishing industries which had always been mainstays of Tainan's economy.

Blessed with approximately 68 square miles of space to accommodate a population which is estimated to reach 2,000,000 by the end of the century, Tainan needed a planned schedule of growth. SU therefore drew up a 10-20 year City Development Plan which involved projects designed to revitalize every facet of municipal life. At the same time he sought to cushion the inevitable shocks that these projects would cause.

His first step was to fulfill his campaign promise to make the government accessible to the public. His office was moved to the first floor of City Hall and glass doors were installed so that everyone could see the mayor at work. Citizens were encouraged to come in and talk to him directly. In December 1977 he instituted the Prompt Service Center (Ma Shang Ban-Chung Hsin) as a government-sponsored clearing house for citizens' problems. This was an expansion of the small, private office he had set up as a councilman. Situated beside his own office, with an open door between them, the Prompt Service Center is responsible to the mayor through his Chief Secretary who serves as superintendent of the center. Nine professional city employees work with over 90 volunteers, on four shifts through a fifteen hour day, to man it. Anyone is welcome to come, ask questions, make complaints or ask for assistance. Ten telephone lines are open to receive calls from the public. All matters brought to the center are logged in and followed up if referrals for action are made to other municipal offices. The mayor is available to handle matters which require his decision.

Although initially established as an information and referral center on municipal matters, the Prompt Service Center soon assumed a much broader function, becoming an information supermarket and counseling service which deals with business and personal problems as well as civic affairs. While many of the questions and requests concern applications for licenses, requests for city services, and help with tax, military conscription and legal matters, the staff at the center's long L-shaped counter also settle lovers' quarrels and domestic spats; give advice on the rearing of children and school problems; offer ideas on agriculture and animal husbandry; help locate missing persons, and answer innumerable other queries. One questioner even appeared on the eve of an American national election to ask the Prompt Service Center who the presidential winner would be!

The volunteers who help man the center include educators, nurses, psychologists, social workers and agricultural and other experts from the Tainan area, many of them retired from government service. They are carefully selected and given a brief training before dealing with the public. Operating during the regular City Hall business hours, the center, like the mayor's office, is also open in the evening until 10:30 or 11 for the convenience of those who find it difficult to come during the normal working day. As of August 1983 over 70,000 problems, requests and inquiries had been dealt with and, as verified by two public opinion polls, the results "are quite satisfactory." Four hundred and seventy-one legal cases have been settled without recourse to the courts, and 149 cases of family disputes.

By making the center available to every citizen and responsible directly to the mayor—who often checks on actions taken by municipal offices—bureaucratic delay and procrastination have been minimized and the city's government bared to public scrutiny. The mayor insists that all questions and complaints be handled courteously, and if he receives a report of official rudeness, the offender is likely to be reprimanded by SU himself. As a result such behavior is rare.

When SU became mayor Tainan's roads presented an immediate problem. To undertake a program of road building and widening SU borrowed over US$90,000,000 from the Central Bank of Taiwan. So far some 180 street projects have been completed. New roads have been laid, old roads improved and connecting links built to all major thoroughfares. Drainage systems have been constructed along new roads and the existing drainage system improved, thus "miraculously" eliminating flooding in the inner city.

Adequate housing for Tainan's burgeoning population presented another problem. Since 1977, 11,092 units of low-cost public housing have been built on land donated by the military, and multistoried condominium apartments now stand on land reclaimed from old salt flats. Additional public housing is scattered throughout the city and negotiations are now being conducted to acquire another 380 acres for housing. Available to the public at low cost, a condominium can be purchased with a bank loan for 30 percent of its value—with the unit itself as security—and with a 15-year government loan for the remaining 70 percent. A typical one-bedroom unit (US$13,000) can be financed with monthly loan payments of around US$100.

A tidal land reclamation project started in 1981 will eventually fill in 1,494.35 acres of land previously utilized as fish ponds. The Fu-Hsing Road reclamation project, located in the downtown area and covering 7.413 acres, was completed in dune 1983.

To improve Tainan's port area of Anping SU dredged the harbor to create a deepwater port. The sand brought up was used to fill in a marshy area designated for development as an industrial zone, and to level land for a proposed resort. The 217.5-acre industrial zone, catering to the seafood processing and packaging industry, is to be completed in February 1984 and 490 companies have arranged to locate there. Further Anping harbor reclamation of 2,718.16 acres and the Cheng-Tzu-Liao reclamation of 1,482.6 acres are included in future plans. The Ho-Shuh industrial zone comprising 419.90 acres is under construction, and seven more such zones are contemplated.

To eliminate an unsightly health hazard SU plans to build over an 800-meter wide ditch running across the salt field a modern "Metro Tainan Tourist Citadel" as a joint venture of private enterprise and the city government. For years nearby residents had complained about this polluted ditch to no avail until June 1983 when Mayor SU evolved his plan to cover it with a compound of two-storey buildings occupying 162,000 square feet. The buildings are projected to house 144 eatery and refreshment booths, 60 grocery booths, 3 department stores, 5 restaurants, a lounging room, a management center, a basement and 2 parking lots. Each booth occupancy is to be sold at a reasonable price with the buyer entitled to a 56 percent bank loan. Private enterprise investors who will build the citadel will enjoy 106 months of free land rental after which all structures will be turned over to the municipal government. The concept is that the adjacent Anping industrial zone will stimulate the prosperity of the area and provide job opportunities, and the citadel will concentrate now scattered sidewalk vendors and peddlers, thereby upgrading their quality of business and standard of living.

SU encourages Tainan's older factories and heavier industries—those specializing in automobile parts, hardware, plastics, chemicals, metal and construction products, food products, furniture, textiles, garments and shoes—to relocate in the new industrial zones, and would like to see new non-polluting light industries—such as computers, optics and electronics—located in the central city.

When neighborhoods must be disrupted for city projects SU goes directly to the people affected. He makes a point of speaking to individuals and groups of citizens who will be forced to relocate when new roads, markets and housing are to be built, and explains to them how they will eventually benefit. To minimize their discomfort he makes temporary facilities available while the new units are under construction.

Details of all the mayor's projects, along with a calendar of civic events, are published in a monthly newsletter which City Hall delivers to every household. The mayor's active public relations staff keeps local newspapers informed of all proposed programs, and the status of those underway. SU believes that a well-informed citizenry, and a municipal government accountable to it, minimize the chances of graft in city projects and develop support for them as well. Polls have shown that 80 percent of Tainan's citizens approve of the projects initiated by the mayor.

To encourage tourism SU looks to the adjacent 11.3 miles of shoreline where he dreams of building a beach resort with modern hotels and a Disney World-like creation of a traditional village. He has already allocated 1,112 acres for the proposed development. He has also entered into discussions with the military to work out arrangements by which it will relinquish control of portions of the shore for recreational purposes. He envisions a semitropical resort, usable in the mild Tainan weather for 10 months a year, with accommodations ranging from luxury to small budget hotels, cottages and camp grounds. Recreational activities will include golf, sailing, cycling and water sports. To provide the estimated US$125,000,000 needed to build such a project, SU is hoping to attract private investors, foreign and domestic. He believes the concept will prove especially attractive to Chinese who want to move their money out of Hong Kong due to uncertainty regarding the future of this British colony after expiration of the 99-year lease to its New Territories in 1997.

The Kuo Hua Building now stands on a 36,000 square foot lot in the heart of the city which was used as an air raid shelter during the latter years of the Japanese regime and occupied by squatters after Taiwan was restored to Chinese jurisdiction in 1945. Realizing the site's potential, Mayor SU overcame city budget limitations by leasing the lot to a private enterprise on reasonable terms. Construction of a nine-storey building began in May 1981 and was completed in September 1983. Allocated to the City Government are the main floor, the first basement and half of the second basement which it rents to various vendors while the remaining portions are occupied by the Kuo Hua Department Store. The City Government also derives rental income from the land. The building beautifies a former slum and offers job opportunities, booth space and accessibility of daily commodities at an easy-to-reach location.

Tainan is a city of more than 200 shrines and historic landmarks, many of which commemorate the landing of Koxinga (Cheng Cheng-kung) who in 1661 defeated the Dutch fortress at Anping and eventually made Tainan his capital. The maintenance and restoration of these shrines have posed some problems for the mayor. Since many of them were built with materials from the mainland which are unobtainable today in Taiwan, compromises have had to be made in the restorations that have caused him anxiety—and some criticism—concerning their historical integrity. To complicate the issues a number of the shrines are privately owned and maintained, and have definitely suffered inappropriate renovation. However the temples, in daily use by thousands, have had to be repaired to insure the public's safety. The formation of a national Council for Cultural Planning and Development will take some of these problems out of the mayor's hands.

Intensely interested in a civic cultural revival, SU has sponsored numerous innovative events and in 1981 started the construction of a US$12,000,000 center which includes a 2,340-seat concert hall, a museum, space for an art gallery, and facilities suitable for international conferences. Near the center a theater seating 2,160 is scheduled for completion in February 1984. In 1980 the city sponsored a 45-day city-wide folk festival which included the public reenactment of a traditional Chinese wedding. The bride and groom were selected from hundreds of applicants and the couple was married at a Koxinga shrine with the full panoply of ancient Chinese marriage customs; the couple's richly costumed attendants were schoolteachers from Tainan and neighboring villages. The city has also held a dragon boat festival, antique shows and many artists' and craftsmen's exhibitions. Wide publicity has drawn citizens to these activities and attendance at the full range of cultural events has increased dramatically.

A sports lover, SU has likewise seen that Tainan's sports facilities are of the finest. In anticipation of holding the National Games in Tainan in 1978, a colosseum was constructed and the existing city sports grounds enlarged. Three years later SU finished Chung Cheng Memorial Sports Park, which covers 20.5 acres and includes facilities suitable for Olympic competition. The area, which can accommodate 50,000 spectators, is the largest municipal sports complex in Taiwan. At the same site are temples, pagodas and a park that SU developed on a former garbage dump.

Attending to the educational needs of Tainan, SU has eliminated the classroom shortage in the city's 50 kindergartens and 81 primary schools, and has modernized existing buildings as well as constructed new ones. Support has been given to institutions such as National Cheng Kung University and Tainan's six other colleges. Special classes for gifted children and a school for the handicapped have been established. From funds donated by grateful citizens to the Prompt Service Center, a scholarship fund utilizing the annual interest from NT$6,000,000 (US$150,000) provides NT$2,000 scholarships to 300 needy students each year. SU's interest extends to the most minute educational matters. He has considered banning the carrying home of school books by elementary school children in order to emphasize that play, too, is an important part of a child's education.

In the field of social welfare, SU is particularly concerned with the needy, the elderly and the orphaned. Over 200 social workers locate needy families throughout the city and arrange for their support. In 1977 SU opened the House of Love, an institution which currently houses 250 old people and a like number of orphans, all of whom are provided living and recreational facilities at no cost. Orphans are educated at public expense through high school and the mayor is now considering ways to extend this benefit through college for those who are qualified. A community center, The Palm Tree, provides a tearoom and recreation for the aged and offers them adult education classes. Smaller centers for the elderly are scattered throughout the city. Citizens over 70 ride Tainan's buses free.

A handsome Labor Activities Center, built by the city in 1980, provides recreational, meeting and lodging facilities for workers. There they can relax in a modern coffee house or rent one of the 250 rooms at the low rate of NT$100 to NT$200 (US$2.50 to US$5.00) a day. A large swimming pool completes the complex.

Near the cultural center a 1,000-bed city hospital is being built which SU hopes will join in a consortium with private hospitals, Cheng Kung University Hospital, Provincial Tainan Hospital and local military hospitals to provide the highest quality medical care to the public at the lowest possible cost.

Even the dead have not been neglected. In deference to the Chinese custom of arranging funerals on auspicious days, the city has built 18 funeral halls on 10 acres of land so that multiple funerals can be held simultaneously.

The annual appropriation the city receives from the provincial government—about US$117,500,000—is constitutionally restricted to ensure that 40 percent of it is spent on education. SU has therefore established a separate budget for construction—with no strings attached—which has been as high as US$250,000,000. To raise this money for his ambitious projects, he taps a combination of sources—private bank loans, government loans and revenues received from the rezoning, upgrading and resale of land.

As regards the latter, the city condemns marginal or non-productive land, splitting the ownership 60/40 between the original owners and the city. The municipality improves the land by rezoning it and adding the amenities of roads, lights, sewers, and schools and recreational facilities. As a result of the improvements, the value of the land increases 30 to 300 percent. Sale of portions of the publicly-owned land, and increased tax revenues from the privately-owned land, finance the repayment of loans to the government and private bankers. As SU noted, "the faster the city prospers, the more buildings constructed, and the more land transactions there are, then the greater are my tax revenues." The scheme permits the city to orchestrate the development of industrial, commercial and private property in an attractive planned environment, and to reserve land for public housing, recreational facilities and parks.

SU has effected many other changes which have improved the quality of life in Tainan. Five new public markets have been built and landscaping and tree planting have been undertaken. The city's crime rate has been lowered, a fact which SU attributes to the better economic condition of the citizens. To fulfill his aim of eliminating violent crime, the police department has been enlarged. Those who break the law are given speedy justice, but educational programs and skills-training are conducted in the city jail to rehabilitate the malefactors.

The city is safe for its citizens and for its mayor alike. Moving freely—without a bodyguard or fear for his personal safety—SU is known to everyone and no one hesitates to stop him to chat about municipal affairs. His popularity is reflected by the people's affectionately irreverent nicknames for him—"The Tank" or "Big Head"—both indicative of his stocky build, indefatigable energy, and a massive head which is reminiscent of the cranium of one of the Chinese Eight Immortals.

However SU's whirlwind style and direct approach to the people has caused dissent within the 38-man City Council, some members of whom feel that he has usurped their prerogatives and functions. SU has also suffered from criticism for his unorthodox party politics. When he withdrew from the ruling Kuomintang and ran for mayor as an Independent, some members of Taiwan's Independence Party believed he would join them in opposing the principles of the KMT and its goal of returning to the mainland. They were bitterly disappointed to find out that the mayor's defection from the KMT was not based on ideological grounds, but simply because the party had endorsed another candidate for the office he wanted to run for. When President Chiang Ching-kuo, in recognition of SU's spectacular record as Tainan's mayor, asked him to return to the fold in 1983 he gladly accepted the opportunity and has become a staunch party supporter, defending its programs and goals.

SU's tenure as mayor is limited by law to two four-year terms. He refuses to conjecture what he will do after 1985, other than "catch up on my reading." He has been forced to neglect reading during his workaholic years as mayor, and regrets it because, as he says, "reading is the only way to progress, to broaden your mind." Nevertheless as he enters his seventh year as chief executive SU is concentrating his energies on completing the ambitious goals he has set for himself and his city.

Totally dedicated to his job, the mayor works up to 18 hours a day. No matter how late he may have stayed up the night before, he rises every morning before 5 a.m. and jogs through the city to the stadium where he runs laps on the track. As he pounds through the streets he calls for the people to wake up and join him, and some do. By 7:00 a.m. he has had a cold shower and is at breakfast with his department heads, discussing municipal matters. Promptly at 8:10 he attends a daily ceremony at City Hall with municipal employees. The flag is raised, the national anthem is sung to the accompaniment of a city band, and SU conducts a brief exercise period. From the opening of business until noon he is either in his open-doored office talking to visitors and officials, or visiting construction sites in the city. At 12:00 his office doors are closed and he reviews his morning's work and signs necessary documents, lunching meanwhile on a workman's box lunch, brought to him by a member of the police force. At 1:30 p.m. his doors reopen and he remains available to the public until the close of business at 5:30. Both the Mayor's Office and the Prompt Service Center are open again from 7:30 to 10:30 or 11:00 at night. If there is not an official banquet to attend the mayor works until midnight and falls asleep on the office couch with the telephone at his side. He chooses to sleep in the office because it is easier than going home, and on the couch, rather than on a bed, to ensure that he sleeps "neither too comfortably nor too long."

At 47 SU is still a bachelor. Although it was humorously rumored that he was shopping for a wife when Tainan sponsored a national beauty contest in 1980, SU simply has not had time for marriage. His energies are focused on the city. Even his parents, to whom he has shown great filial devotion and to whom he gives one-half his salary, seldom see him outside of office hours. Nevertheless a small room is still maintained for him at the modest family home; it contains a desk, a couch and an uncharacteristic luxury—a stereo set.

Personal qualities which have made SU a hero to the common man include his frugality and his fairness. His frugality is well-known and is documented by his mother who says he is so thrifty that he has been known to eat leftover food—which the family had set aside for the dog—thinking it was going to waste. The official residence provided him as mayor was turned over to the city for use as a guest house.

His determination to serve all the people, fairly and without favoritism, is attested by an oft-told Tainan story. The mayor refused to grant an official favor to a family friend, even though it was requested of him by his own mother. The latter was so angry that she refused to speak to him for three days, and only relented when he knelt before her and explained why he could not do her bidding. But he did not reverse himself.

SU has traveled abroad on numerous occasions in connection with his official duties. In 1976, while he was still a councilman he visited the United States on a U.S. International Visitor's Grant to observe American cities and the ways they attempt to handle their problems. In 1980 and 1981 he again traveled to the United States, these times to attend international conferences for mayors. He has also made trips to Japan, Korea and the Philippines in connection with the "sister city" relationships Tainan has achieved with 15 cities abroad.

Twice honored by American institutions, SU was given an award by the United States Air Force for his statesmanlike protection of the safety of American personnel during the brief turmoil following the termination of official diplomatic ties between the United States and Taiwan. In 1982 Pepperdine University of California granted the mayor an honorary doctorate, and the president of Pepperdine traveled to Tainan to bestow it.

When asked recently what he considered his most difficult task as mayor, SU replied that nothing has been difficult except finding the time to serve the city as he wished. Perhaps Mayor SU's greatest achievement is a psychological one. By opening his office doors and establishing the Prompt Service Center he has helped the people of Tainan understand the goals and the workings of their government. It is this awakening of civic awareness and responsibility which he hopes will outlast his time in office. In his own words SU has said: "We want the citizens of Tainan to recognize that today's government is everyone's government. If the government has a problem people must realize that it's everyone's problem."

September 1983
Manila

REFERENCES:

"A Brief Introduction to the 'Prompt Service Center' of Tainan Municipal Government." Issued by Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for Group Discussion with Mayor Su Nan-cheng. August 1983. (Xeroxed.)

"Building a City for the People." Information Sheet issued by Tainan Municipal Government. C. 1983. (Typewritten.)

Facts and Figures About the City of Tainan. Brochure. Tainan: Tainan Municipal Government. July 1, 1982.

Glimpses of Su Nan-cheng. Tainan: Information Office of Tainan Municipal Government. August 1, 1983.

Su Nan-cheng. "Building a City for the People." Presentation to Group Discussion. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila. September 2, 1983. (Typewritten transcript.)

"Tainan's Alarm Clock," Vista. Taipei, Taiwan. 1980-81.

"Tiptop Temple Tours, Tainan," Taiwan Newsletter. Taiwan: Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Vol. 15, no. 12, December 1982.

Wieman, Earl. "Our Objective is to Preserve Our Historic Culture," Economic News. Taipei February 28/March 6, 1983.

Interview with Su Nan-cheng and interviews with and letters from persons acquainted with him and his work. Visit to Tainan City.