Yim Tim Tsai—The Place and Its History

This chapter outlines a brief history of Yim Tin Tsai over 370 years from the time of its original settlement by the migrating Hakka Chan clan from mainland China to the current day. It charts its transformation from Daoist-oriented Hakka folklore as its religious foundations to Catholicism which the community adopted in the mid-1800s. It sets out the brief but crucial connection of Father Joseph Freinademetz to Yim Tin Tsai and his subsequent missionary work in China which led to his canonization as a saint by the Pope in 2003. This in turn led to the revitalization of Tim Tin Tsai from a totally abandoned village to a thriving pilgrimage site as the Village Committee and the Catholic Diocese seized ‘ownership’ of the new saint and used the Vatican’s decision about him to restore the 1889 St Joseph’s chapel. Through a Joint Committee they established a not-for-profit agency called “Salt and Light” to oversee the development of the island, which is now evolving into a broader, ‘secular’ tourism destination with a distinct identity.