Stateswoman: Taiwan’s cat warrior Bi-khim Hsiao is a Mayflower descendant (1/3)
Bi-khim Hsiao (蕭美琴) is a Taiwanese changemaker who served as our first woman ambassador to the United States from 2020 to Nov. 20, 2023. She was just officially announced as the running mate of William Lai (賴清德), the presidential candidate representing Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party in the Jan 2024 elections. She also shares President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) affinity for cats.
A Mayflower descendant
The 52-year-old diplomat was born in Kobe, Japan then raised in southern Taiwan, and holds a MA in political science from Columbia University. Her father was an adopted Taiwanese reverend who was raised by Christian parents, for his birth father had to give the two-year-old Ching-fen Hsiao (蕭清芬) up for adoption after his wife died). Her mother came from Mayflower descendants. Peggy Cooley (邱碧玉), who helped to introduce the pipe organ to Taiwan, became fluent in Taiwanese after marrying the reverend who later led the Tainan Theological College and Seminary (台南神學院). Cooley named her two daughters 美琴 and 美瑟 after a saying highlighting the harmonious, complimentary qualities of two traditional music instruments, guqin and zither (琴瑟和鳴).
My excerpt translation of Reverend Ching-fen Hsiao’s (alternatively spelled as Siau Chheng-hun) words as printed in Hsiao Bi-khim’s 2004 Mandarin memoir “One Can Do It” (一個人也可以, translated English title for reference only):
A diversity of ethnicities and cultures have been strumming throughout her life. This is not only a legacy bestowed upon her by the Hsiao family but also a lifelong source of enrichment. From her mother, Bi-khim has inherited the spirit of the Mayflower descendants in America. Her ancestors encompass pastors, doctors, diplomats, and those of Scottish, English, Dutch origin — all this is carefully documented. Bi-khim has also inherited the most “common” Taiwanese background, that of having a father from an anonymous lineage, one who cannot trace his family four generations back. I might have been “bestowed” a last name, or perhaps I came from a Taiwanese line started by a Chinese man and an Indigenous plains woman. When my daughter was enrolled at the National University of Tainan Affiliated Primary School and was asked to state her “ancestral home,” I was faced with an immense challenge as her father. Bi-khim grew up among the dynamics that stem from such polarizing heritages.
多種族、多文化在她生命脈絡中暢流不息。這不但是她所承受的傳統，也是她繼續可充分使用的資源。她從母親繼承了「五月花」後裔一白種美國人的脈絡。先祖中有牧師、醫師、外交官，有蘇格蘭、英格蘭、荷闌等血統，皆有詳細家譜紀錄。她也承接了台灣最普遍的「通俗」傳統，父親出身「無名氏」錄，無法追溯到第四代祖先，可能是被「賜姓」，或屬「有唐山公，無唐山嬷」類的「台灣人」。當她在台南附小讀小學，學校要求塡寫「祖藉」時，實在難倒了作爲家長的父親。她就在這兩極會合的傳統中成長。
The Cooley Genealogy, published in 1941 tracing the clan’s lineage to the pilgrims who spent ten weeks crossing the Atlantic in 1620, starts with:
This record began at my mother’s knee when she told us children stories about early Cooleys — stories that had come down with the years. One was of a Cooley who fell in love with a Scotch lassie — a school teacher. Her parents objecting to their marriage, they ran away and came to America. Could this have been Benjamin and his wife Sarah? Possibly, but hardly likely in light of later discoveries. Another was of a Cooley who was a cattle-drover in the late Revolutionary War period, or just after. Returning East after a successful trip, with his saddlebags full of money and bright dreams of the future, he stopped overnight in Albany, and found in the morning that with all his money he could not pay for his night’s lodging. Continental money had ceased to have any value…
Two more fun facts to come!
