Fan Hsieh
Fan Hsieh (Hsieh is his family name, so standard Chinese order would be Hsieh Fan, it is also at times Romanized as Hsieh Fang) (born Aug. 22, 1922) has been a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, serving in many callings including as president of the Taipei Taiwan Temple from 1997-2000. As of the present Hsieh is one of only two Chinese men to serve as president of the Taipei Temple, the other having been Wei Wang, who served immediately prior to Brother Hsieh.
Brother Hsieh was born in Daye in Hubei Province in China. He began his formal eduation at age ten and became a member of the Roman Catholic Church in his late teens. He then studied at a Catholic Seminary in Wuhan. After four years there he studied at a Catholic University in Beijing, but when that city fell to the Communists, he re-located to Aurora Jesuit University in Shanghai. When that city also fell to the Communists, Hsieh relocated to a Catholic seminary in Hong Kong which later moved to Macao, to which Hsieh went along with the seminary. It was in Macao that Hsieh was ordained a Catholic priest.
Hsieh later studied law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome and recieved a doctroate from the University of Paris. In 1967 Hsieh began 6 years of teaching at Fu Jen Catholic University. However, due to finding that some of the statements in the Bible did not agree iwth the life of a priest, in 1973 Hsieh resigned his position at Fu Jen Catholic University and became a professor at National Cheng Chi Univeristy. A year later he married Shou-yi Lou who had been one of his students at Cheng Chi.
In early 1977 Hsieh met the Latter-day Saint missionaries. After much study he and his wife were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ in December 1977.
Hsieh assisted in the creation of the second translation of the Book of Mormon into Chinese and served as a member of the Taipei Taiwan Temple Presidency from 1986-1990. He also served as a member of a high council, a member of a stake presidency, a bishop and a branch president at various times prior to his call as temple president in 1997.
