Introduction
Dr. Hsien Rin (1925–2016), ancestral hometown of Taipei and born in Shantou, Guangdong, entered the School of Medicine at Hokkaido Imperial University to begin his studies in 1945, but due to the end of the Pacific War, transferred to the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University in the following year. After graduating in 1949, he began working in the Department of Psychiatry at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), where he became the longest serving head in the history of the department. Rin devoted his career to cultural psychiatric medicine, largely defined as encompassing biology, psychology, sociology, history, and cultural custom, a field which involves the epidemiological study of mental health conditions, social and cultural psychiatry, and the history of psychiatry; furthermore, he was a pioneer in both forensic psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine in Taiwan. Beyond medicine, Rin enjoyed and displayed a level of mastery in kendo, poetic prose, and painting.
Following his passing in 2016, Rin’s research materials and personal documents, totaling twenty-five boxes, were donated to the Archives by his wife Kusunoki Masumi in 2017. To date, the Archives has already completed the initial cataloging of 2,322 items. Contents include manuscripts, poetic prose, offprints of articles, official documents and records which he had acquired, survey data, photographs, correspondences, and notebooks, all of which are invaluable for research on the development of psychiatric medicine in Taiwan, as well as artistic works and other items related to his personal interests.
Following his passing in 2016, Rin’s research materials and personal documents, totaling twenty-five boxes, were donated to the Archives by his wife Kusunoki Masumi in 2017. To date, the Archives has already completed the initial cataloging of 2,322 items. Contents include manuscripts, poetic prose, offprints of articles, official documents and records which he had acquired, survey data, photographs, correspondences, and notebooks, all of which are invaluable for research on the development of psychiatric medicine in Taiwan, as well as artistic works and other items related to his personal interests.