Cheng Long Tsai (蔡正隆博士)

Identity Snapshot

• English: Cheng Long Tsai
• Chinese: 蔡正隆博士
• Era: 1944-1995
• Geography: 台灣台中
• Core roles: engineer
• Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Education

• 台灣大學 — 1966 — B.S.機械工程
• 南卡羅萊納州立大學 — 1969 — M.S.機械
• 卡內基大學 — 1972 — Ph.D.機械

Employment

• 美國艾克森石油公司 — 1991 — 鑽油井工作研究
• 鑽油公司 — 1992-1994 — 工程顧問

Family

• Wife: Cecelia葉明霞
• Daughter: Maggie Tsai
• Daughter: Kathy Tsai
• Son: Kenny Tsai
• Son: George Tsai

Role in the Community

蔡正隆 (1944–1995) was a principal advocate in the 陳文成 (Chen Wen-chen) murder-case campaign. Together with 陳唐山 (Mark Chen) and 陳素貞 (Chen Su-jen) he testified before the U.S. Congress, and their testimonies were entered in Congress’ permanent records; the two hearings gave the community confidence in congressional lobbying and gave birth to FAPA (Evan Ling 林富文 memoir; 許永華 memoir:「至於蔡正隆以眞實姓名，眞面目到美國國會作證，更是有種的朋友。」). Per the memoir’s Chinese account the campaign also included an unsuccessful plan (kept private until the memoir) in which 蔡同榮 engaged the prominent American civil-rights lawyer Ramsey Clark to sue the KMT for the murder in the U.S. — materials were collected and the 同鄉會 pledged financial support, but 陳素貞, fearing for her relatives in Taiwan, dared not back the suit (林富文 memoir 中文原版). His congressional testimony was remembered at the 燭火闖關 memorial: the essay-collection’s editors worked under two-character codenames (石林＝林富文, 許杰＝許永華, etc.) (許永華 memoir).

Per the ROC black-list roster in 何文亮、莊峻華: he served as 同鄉會會長 in 1985 and later returned to Taiwan under the alias「蔡巫福」promoting the Taiwan independence movement, was expelled, and was then at Exxon — consistent with the Exxon/engineering-consultant employment table above. The same memoir gives his education as 台大機械系 and a Pittsburgh Carnegie-Mellon engineering Ph.D. (reconciles with the 卡內基大學 1972 Ph.D. line above).

Community-organizing record (absorbed 2026-09-22 from our memoir corpus): in Pittsburgh he was a prominent player and repeated captain of the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Club’s renowned softball team, which toured to Washington D.C., Cleveland, Columbus, Michigan, Buffalo and Syracuse, with games usually in Schenley Park or on the Carnegie-Mellon campus — 胡民祥, 早年匹茲堡台灣同鄉會簡介與歷屆會長考證. The same memoir records that his wedding to 葉明霞 (Cecelia) — they were 大學知友 — had its reception at 羅福全’s house on Penn Avenue in the early Pittsburgh-community years. In the movement’s top body he was elected 主席 of 全美台灣獨立聯盟 at the 1994-05-28 New Orleans 盟員代表大會 (副主席 張信堂), serving until his death 1995-10-13, after which the Central Committee elected 張信堂 as chairman and 莊秋雄 as vice-chairman the same day (台獨聯盟美國本部); the league’s HQ roster of 14 leaders (1956–1999) lists him as the 機械 representative — 台獨聯盟美國本部.

After his death in 1995 the community established the 蔡正隆博士紀念基金會 ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/cheng-long-tsai-fund|TAH #50]], record 2018-01-02), and his memorial essay collection《燭火闖關》is held as [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/262-e7-87-ad-e7-81-ab-e9-97-96-e9-97-9c-e8-94-a1-e6-ad-a3-e9-9a-86-e5-8d-9a-e5-a|TAH #262 / 胡民祥]].

Sources

• TAH Who’s Who

Related Pages

• |TAH Foundation
• |taiwaneseamericanhistory.org

Corpus re-grep 2026-09-24 (slice 09230500-6): works+articles hits for 蔡正隆/Cheng Long Tsai return the identical set already absorbed above (Our Journeys #8 EN/ZH, #321, #106, #234, plus 蔡正隆博士紀念基金會 and [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/262-e7-87-ad-e7-81-ab-e9-97-96-e9-97-9c-e8-94-a1-e6-ad-a3-e9-9a-86-e5-8d-9a-e5-a|TAH #262《燭火闖關》]]). Verified saturated; no new facts, no conflicts introduced.

Timeline (corpus-absorbed, slice 09240500-1)

• 1981-07-30 — First U.S. Congressional hearing on the 陳文成 case: at the House Foreign Affairs Asia-Pacific subcommittee hearing chaired by Rep. Solarz, 陳文成’s friend 蔡正隆 testified alongside 世台會會長 陳唐山 and the City College president, pointing out the inconsistencies in the official ROC account and denouncing KMT informant (密報) activity at U.S. universities that threatened Taiwanese students’ freedom; the testimony was entered into the Congressional record — timeline record [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/66-kenjohn-wang-e8-94-a1-e6-ad-a3-e9-9a-86|TAH #67 — Cheng Long Tsai 蔡正隆]] (extends the existing congressional-testimony entry with the exact date, hearing chair, and content of his testimony).
• 1989-08-11 — Defied the black list and returned to Taiwan by 闖關 (stowaway-style breach) for the 世台會 annual meeting in Kaohsiung, appearing at the venue with blacklisted 世台會會長 李憲榮 and 副會長 蔡銘祿 and joining the 黑名單返鄉大遊行 with local crowds — 邱萬興’s blacklist return-to-Taiwan history [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys230|Our Journeys #230]] (the existing black-list roster note in #106 records the alias 蔡巫福 and expulsion but not this action).
• c. 1989-08 — During that return trip his wife 葉明霞 (Cecelia) joined the 「代夫出征」 campaign: standing on a propaganda car through the streets ahead of the 演講會 wearing the sash 「台灣獨立建國聯盟中央委員蔡正隆夫人」, the photo published on the front page of 自由時報 the next day — 張丁蘭 memoir [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys210|Our Journeys #210 返鄉記]].
• 2016-10 — 梁金城’s memorial essay 「追憶 蔡正隆—台灣獨立義士」 published in the TAH story corpus ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories469|TAH #469]], bibliographic record only).
• Press photo-archive record: a 陳文成事件 42週年 「開箱老照片」 feature re-published the hearing-era photos in 2025 (台灣正義網絡, 2025-05-21; duplicate 2024-02-24 variant also filed) — corroborating press record, no new biographical facts.

Corpus re-grep 2026-10-10 (slice 10081300-29): ZH+EN+alias grep (蔡正隆 / Cheng Long Tsai / 蔡巫福) across all 5 corpus dirs returns the identical saturated hit set already absorbed above (Our Journeys #8 EN/ZH, #106, 106-timeline, #210, #230, #234, #292 EN+ZH, #321, mystories469, cheng-long-tsai-fund, TAH #262《燭火闖關》, plus the two 台灣正義網絡 press variants). The only delta vs the 2026-09-24 re-grep is the English translation [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys292-eng|Our Journeys 292-eng]], which restates the softball-captain passage already recorded — no new facts, no conflicts. Verified saturated; last_reviewed bumped.

Corpus re-grep 2026-10-11 (slice 10101000-18): ZH+EN+alias grep (蔡正隆 / Cheng Long Tsai / 蔡巫福) across all 5 corpus dirs again returns the identical hit set (17 files: same 15 works + 2 台灣正義網絡 press variants + sources index) already fully absorbed above — no new material, no conflicts. Verified saturated; last_reviewed bumped.

Corpus re-grep 2026-10-12 (slice 10110700-19): same ZH+EN+alias grep returns the identical saturated hit set. Two details from hits already in the corpus were not previously stated on the page and are now absorbed: (1) per 林富文 memoir 中文原版 [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys8|Our Journeys #8]], it was 蔡同榮 who engaged Ramsey Clark for the (unsuccessful) suit against the KMT, and 蔡同榮’s lobbying also produced the two congressional hearings; (2) per 台獨聯盟美國本部, on 1995-10-13 the Central Committee elected 張信堂 主席 and 莊秋雄 副主席 the same day. No conflicts introduced; last_reviewed bumped.