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Photographer | Hsieh San-tai

  • Date:2024-10-25
Photographer Hsieh San-tai

Chinese name: 謝三泰

Born: 1951

Birthplace: Magong, Penghu County (Southern Taiwan)

 

Did you know that…?

Hsieh San-tai was among the first batch of reporters who were allowed to enter China in the 1980s. During his stay in Beijing, he witnessed firsthand the development of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

 

 

Hsieh San-tai was born in 1958 in a small village on the outskirts of Magong, Penghu, an archipelago of low-lying islands in the Taiwan Strait. At the age of 20, he left his hometown for the first time, heading towards Kaohsiung City to do his compulsory military service. At that time, the occurrence of the Kaohsiung Incident (also known as the Formosa Incident)—a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 1979—sparked his interest in politics and current affairs.

 

When living in Taiwan proper, Hsieh San-tai experienced the glamour of high mountains and long rivers for the first time, which cannot be found in his hometown Penghu. This prompted him to purchase his first camera in order to record all the new things he had seen. After completing his military service, Hsieh drove a taxi for a living, but he kept spending his off-hours in photography.

 

In 1987, Hsieh became a photojournalist. It was the same year the martial law was lifted in Taiwan, followed by the removal of the press restriction in 1988, which led media outlets to thrive, marking the start of a new era for Taiwanese news media.

 

In a time when protests were common, Hsieh placed himself on the frontlines between the protesters and the police, documenting the Taiwanese people’s struggle for democracy. Some of the protests Hsieh covered include the May 20 farmers’ protest (520農民運動) of 1988, which was the largest protest ever on the island at the time since the February 28 incident in 1949, and the Wild Lily Student Movement (野百合學運) of 1990, a student movement demonstrating for a direct presidential election and reformation of the National Assembly (國民大會).

 

In 1989, Hsieh became one of the first reporters to be permitted into China by the Chinese government, planning to cover stories such as the Asian Junior Gymnastics Championships, the Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting, and the 1989 Sino-Soviet Summit.

 

His visit coincided with the start of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, and Hsieh secretly documented the students’ protests with his camera, sending the photos back to Taiwan while avoiding being noticed by the Chinese authorities. However, as the tension in Tiananmen Square grew, Hsieh was forced to return to Taiwan on May 23, unable to cover the entire story. After his return, Hsieh chose to resign from his position, in protest of his company’s decision.

 

Although Hsieh hasn’t been working as a photojournalist since the early 2000s, he doesn’t lose his passion for photography. He still continues to record the stories of ordinary people, migrant workers, and the disadvantaged, as well as to explore environmental issues with his camera. Organized in 2005, his photo exhibition “Esteemed faces of labors (勞動尊顏)” showcased the portraits of the hard-working laborers, showing to the public the images of these unsung heroes who ensure the functioning of our society. 

 

In 2023, Hsieh was awarded the Wu San-lien Arts Award for his contributions to chronicling Taiwan’s democratization and for his humanitarian care for the disadvantaged in the country.