Taiwan 400 Years

During this new year holiday, I read a book Taiwan 400 Year (台湾四百年) by a Taiwanese historian Cho-yun Hsu (许倬云).

While this book is called Taiwan 400 years, the story actually starts from the mid of Minh dynasty, which is nearly 6 centuries earlier. As the southeastern coast was constantly harassed by the “Langren” (浪人) group, the military arm which failed the war in Southern dynasties, the Qing government enacted the “lock country” policy, and therefore smuggling became a marine trade pattern of the southeastern Chinese provinces. By then, Taiwan’s social status hugely depends on marine politics and economy.

Later when Ming dynasty was overturned by Qing dynasty, the nation of Man took the place of Han as the leader of China. Consequently, Han nation was forced to change their custom and culture. Koxinga (郑成功), as a branch of rebels, move to Taiwan and established an anti-Qing regime with the hope of continuing authentic Han culture. As a Taiwanese, the author Cho-yun Hsu presented a rather surprising viewpoint from perspective. The Taiwan that I learned from textbook has always been a “treasury island” (宝岛); however, in this book, the author believes that Taiwan, in this era, was a barren island of simple social structure and small market. Because of the geographical limitation, tribes on Taiwan island were rather independent. Compared with Indochina peninsula, Malay peninsula, Brunei, Philippine, which are on the way of the South China sea, Taiwan is nowhere to be noticed. So, even though Chinese people started recognising Taiwan pretty early, Taiwan has only officially debuted in Chinese historical literature quite late.

The regime started by the “Holy Emperor who Started Taiwan” (开台圣王) Koxinga lasted three generations before his grandson gave in to Qing government. Then the epic immigration era started under Qing’s governance. Due to Qing’s concern of overgrown power on Taiwan island that they might not be able to control, Qing government put in a lot of restrictions on Taiwan’s immigration, which makes the immigration population to Taiwan smaller than those who migrated to southeastern Asia; however, this is still the biggest era that Taiwan had a giant leap in population. I am assuming perhaps the name of Treasury Island only started to emerge from this era.

After the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan became the colony of Japan. The author Cho-yun Hsu sees this history dialectically. On one hand, Japanese government used Taiwan as the modern agricultural experiment field, which brings Taiwan advanced technology and culture; on the other hand, social issues were never settled because of the unequal and discriminational treatment to Taiwan people. On this note, from this book I came to know and became interested in another Japanese book written by another Taiwanese author “Orphan of Asia (亚细亚的孤儿) ”.

The following contemporary history of the authoritarian period under Kuomintang and new liberal era is completely new to me. The history that I previously learned usually only touch bases this period briefly. In this book, I came to know that the Kuomingtang army who took possession of Taiwan from Japan was actually rather shabby-looking. Compared with the well-trained Japanese troop, Taiwanese people were surprised and disappointed. With more and more corruption cases unveiled, a few riots had already happened before Chiang Kai-shek arrived at Taiwan. The complicated politics and difficult social problems made Kuomingtang held up the martial law for 38 years. Taiwan people suffered all those time, and hence the opposition parties had enough public will to grow. After Chiang family completely quit politics, the democracy of Taiwan entered on a new era. However, the author sees it as “Taiwan has no party which prioritises social well-being, nor one that prioritises personal liberty. The competition of different parties is solely divided by being mainland-orientated or being local-orientated”. My personal observation to Taiwan’s politics is mostly from Taiwanese entertainment TV shows that feature Taiwanese politicians as guests, so I cannot make any sensible judgement, but I do agree with what Cho-yun Hsu said about our value system. He said our values should not be borrowed completely from the western. We should know not only what it is but also know why it is so.

This book helps me understand Taiwan’s history better. Looking back the 400 years of Taiwan, from the barren island in the author’s eyes to one of the Asian Four Dragons, Taiwan’s achievement is undeniable. I still remember that I misunderstood many southeastern singers are Taiwanese because they all went to Taiwan and worked from there. Perhaps this unequal economic status is one of the reasons that Taiwan and mainland went further away in modern ages. After all, as a mainlander, I always hope for peace. I don’t know how the history will be written in another 100 or 400 years, but it would be a shame to see a polarised society, or a torn-apart country. Recent events suggest the light of peace is dimming out, from my own point of view, I think this is a very unfortunate turn of fate to either side of the strait. I hope those who are responsible can make sensible decisions collectively, so our regional peace can continue.