The Dr. Man-Tu Liao and Huang-Ta Liao Memorial Hall was established within their ancestral home in Erlun in recognition of their significant contributions for the following reasons:
It commemorates the selfless devotion of Dr. Man-Tu Liao and Huang-Ta Liao to the welfare of their community and for their contributions to medical care in Taiwan.
It ensures Dr. Man-Tu Liao’s contributions in helping people are properly recognized and not lost to history due to his persecution during the White Terror period and wrongful imprisonment for 12 years.
It recognizes Dr. and Mrs. Liao’s legacy of generosity and public service which continues on through the generations of their family. Many of their descendants exemplify their spirit by making service to their communities a priority and by pursuing professional excellence in academia, health care, and business.
An introduction to pioneering Taiwanese physician Dr. Man-Tu Liao and his wife Huang-Ta Liao.
Dr. Man-Tu Liao (1917-1984), born in Laihui Village, Erlun Township, Taiwan, believed in the concept of equality and mutual love since childhood. After growing up in the rural village, he left for Japan to study dentistry and medicine with a mission of helping the world and saving people. When he graduated, Dr. Liao returned to Taiwan and officially established the Erlun Health Center on June 1, 1950, using his own home as the first clinic location.
Dr. Liao pioneered a health care system in Erlun Township (similar to the current national health insurance in Taiwan) to allow villagers access healthcare. He later received assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund which allowed him to focus on preventing and treating diseases found in school-aged children. He also relied on his own research, development, and deployment of therapeutic drugs to
treat children and villagers with ailments such as head lice, trachoma, malaria, and other diseases. Due to poor sanitary conditions during that time, epidemic diseases were rampant. Dr. Liao taught people how to prevent and treat many diseases. His achievements were quite remarkable as were his significant contributions to the
community’s medical care.
During the White Terror, Dr. Liao was arrested without warning, prosecuted by the government, and wrongfully imprisoned in 1953 for 12 years. It was during his imprisonment that he studied the efficacy and learned the practice of acupuncture. After his release, he provided acupuncture treatment for free to disabled children, often with successful outcomes. In 1975, Dr. Liao was invited by the Cleveland
Clinic in the United States for a lecture series on the methods and curative effects of acupuncture and moxibustion.
His devoted wife, Mrs. Huang-Ta Liao (1918-1995), was born in Changhua, Taiwan. She raised five children by herself during his imprisonment and was also an integral part of the community in Erlun where she served as a midwife at the clinic. Mrs. Liao often delivered babies for low-income families for free and generously provided nutritional supplements at no cost. Local villagers praised Mrs. Huang-Ta Liao’s incredible spirit of community service, hard work, and perseverance. Part of her legacy was passing on these lessons to her children.
Dr. and Mrs. Liao’s children have honored the memory of their parents by establishing scholarships for students in recognition of public service. Their eldest son, William Liao, and their middle daughter, Karen Shih with her husband Dr. Shing Kuo Shih, donated funds to establish the Tzu-Hui Scholarship presented by the Taiwan Chilin Foundation and the charity Tzu-Hui Scholarship administered by the Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society. These scholarships are given yearly to students in Taiwan and Canada respectively who have demonstrated their commitment to making a positive difference in society. It’s the hope that the scholarship will encourage recipients to continue working hard to achieve their goals in life and also to inspire them with the same spirit of Dr. and Mrs. Liao in making their communities a better place.
