Forging a Compelling Vision

The first major project was a hospital with 200 sickbeds in Hualien, a further step of offering free clinic services since early years of this organization. Hualien county locates on the eastern side of Taiwan Island and is isolated from western heavily populated cities by huge mountains. Residents there have long suffered from shortage in medical resources because the inconvenience in transportation prevented medical

4 Tzuchi defines its membership in a loose way. Whoever donates in a regular base will be considered a “member”. Those who volunteer to collect petty donation door by door is called “committee member” (weiyuan), with a number as high as half million in Taiwan. They are the core body of this organization, engaging in the voluntary job almost on a full-time base. The majority of these committee members are housewives and this fact made the organization look much softer and less threatening in the authoritarian era. Whoever donates a big amount of money can get a respectful title, “honorary director” (rongyu dongshi).

An unofficial, interim category is “reserved committee member” (muhou weiyuan, literally committee member behind the curtain) who works as if a committee member but needs some time to pass the evaluation.

5 Tzu Chi Foundation website, Annual Report for 2010. Available at

http://www.us.tzuchi.org/us/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1257%3Aannual-report&catid=152%3Aannual-report&Itemid=388&lang=en. (Retrieved on October 2012)

6 Hereafter all currency amounts have been transferred to US dollars with an exchange rate of 1 US dollar to 40 New Taiwan dollars.

businesses from investing there. Very few well-trained medical practitioners would be willing to stay in a place without big institute or advanced equipment for career development. Once get sick, the patients needed to be transferred to Taipei through lengthy, rugged, meandering mountain roads. Many failed to survive without instant medical assistance. Many families were impoverished by the expensive medical and transportation costs. Since sickness had been the prime cause of a series of tribulations for local folks, building a hospital was a very effective means to save a lot of local population from terming their lives into miserable condition.⁷

To accomplish this mission, Tzuchi needed to overcome several daunting challenges. The first was finance.

To build an ideal hospital, modeling the best one in Taipei, demanded for 20 to 30 million USD. This was an amount that could never be collected through piggy-bank donation in local marketplaces. After five years of fundraising since the announcement in 1979, the available amount was still less than one million USD on the verge of ground-breaking ceremony. That was not even enough to acquire the needed land. The difficult part was the principles that Tzuchi set up for itself. It rejected the “investment” from abroad or from the

government because Tzuchi intended to run the hospital in its own style without intervention of major shareholders.⁸ It also believed that the funds could be collected from the society that benefits from the medical service most.

A breakthrough happened when an innovating method was invented. It was a campaign called

“Lotus-in-Heart Bazaar” (xinlian yimai) in which an invisible lotus was “sold” for US$ 250. Lotus is a symbol of holy and fortune. Selling a lotus-in-heart was an invitation of sharing the identity of Buddhist spirit in mercy and charity. It was initiated by a blind, crippled Leprosy patient in a sanitarium. Through mass media reports, her engagement touched the hearts of the society and triggered a stunningly profound reaction in Taipei area, where a middle-class swelled in the after a decade of fast economic development. Many new riches were looking for spiritual fulfillment after gaining material satisfaction. A niche combining religious doctrines and philanthropic endeavors met the needs of the bourgeois in pursuing the meaning of life. This campaign lasted for several years not only to solve the financial problem of the hospital project, but also become a step stone for Tzuchi to become a nationwide charity organization. In addition to weaving a much thicker and broader network, Tzuchi volunteers built up their efficacy and gained confidence on the society. More ambitious visions and missions were therefore forged since then.

The second challenge was siting. It was very difficult to get a big, integral piece of land for the hospital.

Since buying it from the market was not an option not only because of the availability of urban land, but also because of the costs. Since different governmental agencies were still holding big chunks of lands for all

7 The Master shared a touching story in raising funds. She once saw a bloodstain on the ground of a rural clinic, and was told that it was left by an aboriginal pregnant woman suffering from miscarriage. The patient failed to get treatment because she could not afford the deposit for surgery. The Master since then vowed to run a new hospital to abolish such practice.

8 It was reported that a Japanese entrepreneur intended to invest on this hospital that could release the tremendous pressure of fundraising but was rejected. There was also a desperate moment that Tzuchi sincerely considered to ask help from the government.

kinds of public uses, an alternative was therefore to ask if any governmental agencies would like to release the land, for rent or for sale, to serve this charity purpose.

The opportunity window was opened when the governor of Taiwan Province, Mr. Lin Yang-Kang, visited Tzuchi in 1980, followed by the national leader Chiang Ching-Kuo.⁹ They both shared the ambition of Master Cheng Yen and promised to solve the problems for her. Many other high-echelon officers, including the Vice President, new Governor of Taiwan Province, and Prime Minster paid their visits to express their supports.¹⁰ With their endorsement, Tzuchi eventually got a piece of land on a perfect location through complicate negotiation and swap.

Two problems were noteworthy. One was the property right. To save Tzuchi from spending limited fund on purchasing land, the government offered a favorable deal by leasing the land in a very low price.

Nevertheless, Tzuchi decided to get the ownership of the land to avoid possible disputes in the future. That was a smart move because the land became very valuable later on. Eventually the Provincial Assembly passed the motion to sell the land to Tzuchi in a favorable price in 1984.¹¹

The other problem was the land-use restrictions. According to land-use regulations, every piece of land has been designed to a special purpose according to the zoning design of urban planning scheme. The acquired land was not specified for hospital but for a high school. Since rezoning usually involve huge stakes because there will be tremendous value discrepancy among different land-use categories, a rezoning initiative usually involves very strict procedures to prevent possible rent seeking activities in this course. A convenient door was opened for Tzuchi to overcome this problem. The rezoning initiative was issued by administrative order from above and the process was shortened from two years to two months.

The third challenge is the professionals. Providing medical services needs more than building a modern hospital with advanced equipment. The core task was to recruit an excellent medical team. While deficiency in professionals and expertise are usually the main problem associated with non-profit failure, Tzuchi was very successful in tackling this challenge. One way was to solicit supports from famous seniors in medical community to run the hospital. The endorsement of key persons attracted patronage of other famous doctors by residing a day or two per week in Hualien to provide their valuable services. Some junior practitioners were also encouraged to develop their careers there not only for advancement opportunities but also for philanthropic enthusiasm. A fundamental way, however, was to build up a integrate system with medical education as foundation and a group of hospitals as practice fields. The picture therefore became much bigger. More ambitious vows were engaged, more resources mobilized, and capacity built. It started with turned out to have a nursing school, a medical university, and six general hospitals.

9 Min Sheng Daily on 20 October, 1980, Edition 1.

10 Tzu Chi Yearbook 1966-1992, Taipei: Tzu Chi Culture Press, 1993. P.56.

11 United Daily News on May 24, 1984, the local version 5.

Tzu Chi Exhorting Language 4. Taipei: Yuan-Liou Publishing. 1992. P.77.

To practice charity, Tzuchi end up with setting up an integrated medical service system. In building up this system, it further constructed its formidable social network with members across classes, nationalities, and religions. This incomparable asset has further enabled this organization to extend its contributions to many different aspects, including education development, humanities cultivation, international disaster assistance, and environment protection. A puzzling question is, however, how this organization can gain tremendous supports from the power elites rather than triggering their suspicion or soliciting crackdowns.