ABSTRACT
From 1945 until 1950, a slow trickle of exiles made their way across the straits that separate the Chinese mainland from the island of Taiwan. By 1949 that trickle had grown into a stream. No firm accounting of the number is available. Estimates range from 1 to 1.5 million people who made the journey by airplane, ship, or leaky boat. Most of the people who traveled were soldiers, either elite officers and military personnel closely associated with the leader of the Nationalist Party, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, or ordinary foot soldiers in the Nationalist army who, probably rightly, believed their lives to be endangered if they stayed in China after the Communist victory. These people were the most unusual of exiles, being both external and internal refugees. In addition to dormitories and hospitals, the complex also included chapels, preaching and teaching halls for lectures, revivals, services, and day schools for neighborhood children.
