The Black Bearded Barbarian (Annotated): A Biography of George Leslie MacKay of Formosa

The Black Bearded Barbarian (Annotated): A Biography of George Leslie MacKay of Formosa
Author: Marion Keith
Publisher: Aizhu Classics
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-03-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781091214088

George Leslie Mackay or Má-kai; (21 March 1844 - 2 June 1901, aged 57) was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa). Born in Canada, He dedicated his life to bringing medical, dental, and spiritual guidance to the people of Taiwan. Along with establishing more than 60 local churches, Oxford College (Aletheia University), the first girls' school (Tamsui Girls' School, 1884) and Tamsui Middle School (Tamkang Senior High School), he was also involved in the bringing of Western medicine to Taiwan. A key achievement was the establishment of what is now called the MacKay Memorial Hospital in 1880. He also helped to adapt the Taiwanese language to a written form by adapting the Latin alphabet to represent it phonetically. It is safe to say that he is the most famous and beloved foreign expat who has lived in Taiwan.

The Black Bearded Barbarian

The Black Bearded Barbarian
Author: Marian Keith
Publisher: Book Jungle
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2008-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781605974880

Marian Keith (1874 - 1961) wrote about George Leslie Mackay who was known as the Black Bearded Barbarian by those who knew him in China. Mackay was the first Presbyterian missionary to serve in Formosa. He is well known in Taiwan for his work in the last part of the 19th century. Mackay arrived in Formosa in 1872. He began with an itinerant dentistry practice. He later established churches, schools and a hospital practicing Western biomedicine. Mackay spoke the Taiwanese language fluently and married a Taiwanese woman. In June 1894, at the General Assembly meeting in St. John, New Brunswick, Mackay was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the highest elected position in the church. He spent the following Moderatoral year traveling across Canada, as well as writing From Far Formosa: the island, its people and missions, a missionary ethnography and memoir of his missionary experiences.