To Omniloquacious and Maoman:
Hsiao Bi-Khim doesn’t have a Christian name. Her father, a church clerk, went to study in the U.S., where he fell in love with her mother, an American musician. They got married and later moved to Japan where her father worked at a church. She was born in Japan. Later, her family moved back to Tawnan (Tainan), where she went to school until she entered her early teens. Then, she left for the U.S. and finished high school and college education there (Columbia University.)
She has a mixture of Japanese, Taiwanese and American personality; no nonsensical, straight forward, strong headed and rational.
Her father, a Ph.D. in Theology of Princeton University, has been fighting for Taiwan’s democracy almost all his adult life. Spelling his daughter’s name in Romaji (Holo Taiwanese) was a statement for him. The KMT confiscated and burnt all bibles published in Romaji in early 1970’s, a time when she was born; then, speaking Holo Taiwanese, Hakka Taiwanese or Austronesian Taiwanese at school had been strictly punishable for quite some time.
PS: There is a version of Romaji for Hakka Taiwanese.
PPS: Under pressure from international community, the KMT gave in and stopped harrassing the Church about using Romaji.