Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan

Gunter Schubert

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317669692
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan offers a comprehensive overview of both contemporary Taiwan and the Taiwan studies field. Each contribution summarises the major findings in the field and highlights long-term trends, recent observations and possible future developments in Taiwan.

Written by an international team of experts, the chapters included in the volume form an accessible and fascinating insight into contemporary Taiwan. Up-to-date, interdisciplinary, and academically rigorous, the Handbook will be of interest to students, academics, policymakers and others in search of reliable information on Taiwanese politics, economics, culture and society.

PART I Political history

1 Taiwan in Late Ming and Qing China

DOI: 10.4324/9781315769523-1

Ann Heylen

Introduction: an assessment of early modern history and its periodization

The selected title for this chapter – ‘Taiwan in late Ming and Qing China’ – might strike a sensitive nerve with some academics and intellectuals, based on the argument that the connotation ‘late Ming’ especially implies that the Taiwan entity as we know it now was part of Ming China (1368–1644). This can be, and by some is being, interpreted as the basis for continuity of belonging to Greater China, even if there are no records that such was the case, as the island was not officially incorporated until 1684, by what was then Qing (Manchu) China. On the other hand, conveniently speaking, the periodization of late Ming and Qing offers a useful and workable metaphor for the advancement of historical scholarship.¹ A classification of Taiwan in the late Ming and Qing era is grounded in a national history written through a dynastic perspective, encompassing a geographical demarcation and a temporal outlook. This specific orientation has its origins in a tradition of Western historiography of Chinese history that parallels Chinese historiography.

The paradigm that underpins the scholarly discussion of Taiwan in late Ming and Qing brings together both the Chinese dynastic and Eurocentric vision of expansionism. Taiwan features where East meets West in a common understanding on how to write the incorporation of the island into the Chinese imperial (dynastic) and European expansionist history. European scholarship (Wills 1979, 1999; Knapp 1980) draws in the Han perspective, so it is clear from the start that the maritime tradition, in which Taiwan together with Manila features as a settlement outside the Chinese heartland, falls as a minor tradition. The frontier, as geographical demarcation, mirrors the periphery and retains China as the centre. Such did become the historical reality from 1684 onwards. Hence, the frontier allows one to see the continuity through to the next phase, from Ming into Qing up to 1895. Apart from the frontier explanation, which incorporates Taiwan into the Chinese expanding empire paradigm at the expense of the maritime tradition, the existing yet limited scholarly knowledge of the indigenous population and the etymology of the island’s name must also be acknowledged. Records of the Ming do not elaborate on Southern Fukienese settlements in great detail, hence material is lacking, and one needs to wait for substantial documentary evidence until the Dutch make their entrance via the Pescadores (Penghu islands).

One of the peculiarities that have shaped Taiwan historiography and Taiwan Studies is the seventeenth century presence of Dutch (1622–1661, 1664–1668) and Spanish powers (1626–1642) on the island. There was a brief settlement by the Portuguese but this was hardly comparable in impact made. This European presence and its documentation allows for rich archives that complement Chinese language scholarship on this period of time. However, the language specificity has also impacted the accessibility for the Taiwan local and international scholarly community. Initial scholarship and knowledge on the period drew from English translations of the original Dutch that were published around the turn of the twentieth century as well as Japanese interwar publications and translations. Chinese sources entailed travel accounts or a ‘collection of Ming essays’ (also see Chou 2012). In step with the emergence of Taiwan subjectivity (Taiwan zhutixing) discourse and identity research, the seventeenth-century Dutch Formosa and Spanish Hermosa episode in Taiwan historical writings started benefiting from a deepening of research mainly based on a wider accessibility to source materials.

Themes in Chinese language research depict the historiographical changes that accompanied Taiwan’s transition from an authoritarian one-party state to a democracy, and which involved a rewriting of its history (as demonstrated by Chang 2008a). In spite of the stranded reality the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) government-in-exile found itself, it adhered to the tradition of continental anti-seafaring of the Chinese heartland, prioritizing the ideology of the agrarian continent. We should not overlook the fact that ROC history was to doubly emphasize traditional China versus the corrupt People’s Republic of China (PRC) version that was being written from the 1950s onwards (as demonstrated by Greene 2006). Under these conditions, the master narrative of the Republican (KMT) interpretation emphasized China’s history, which was by default continentally based, seen from a Han-Chinese perspective and defined as restorative.² Accordingly, little attention was paid to the indigenous population, and the Dutch and Spanish European powers were portrayed as the enemy.

This master narrative was challenged on the grounds of a dispute that broke out between anthropologists and historians regarding the interpretation and documentation of Qing Taiwan societal development in terms of bentu versus neidi (Heylen 2001a). It laid bare the ideological rift in the academic world and also largely represented/reflected the Us–Them polarity between the bensheng and waisheng communities at play in wider society. By the mid-1980s, this antagonistic climate became known as the Taiwanese versus Chinese consciousness debate, and to date we speak of the Taiwan-centric and Sino-centric interpretation of history.

Against this background, clear signs were coming from the academic community to set up a framework depicting the practical, technical and ideological issues that beset the development of seventeenth century early history (zaoqi lishi) in terms of access to source material, translations and the need to study abroad to learn the foreign languages involved, namely Dutch and Spanish (Chiang 1985). The significance of Dutch source material formed the foundation for one of the four pillars that characterize ‘Taiwan Island History’ (Taiwan daoshi) and that by now have come to define the orientation of Dutch Formosa Studies (hezhi shidai yanjiu). Credit goes to academician Tsao Yung-ho (1920–2014). Taiwan Island History provides the methodological framework to write about the theme of Dutch Formosa/Spanish Hermosa, which is a specialization of either the area studies called Taiwan Studies (Taiwan yanjiu, Taiwanxue) or the sub-discipline within history called Taiwan History (Taiwanshi). The (digital) disclosure of the Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie (VOC, United East India Company) archival materials has resulted in large translation projects into Chinese or English that are state or privately funded. As translation projects bridge the local and the global, the localization takes as its tool the Dutch manuscripts and finds expression in the search for the indigenous content. Irrespective of whether there is an activist/nationalist undertone, the biggest need for weeding the translations is to correct or complement the Chinese gazetteers that function as the authoritative documentation of Chinese rule over Taiwan and the formation of a Chinese society over the indigenous Formosan ways of life. What makes this time period in history attractive, yet at the same time also complex, is the interaction between the European, indigenous and Chinese who, in the twenty-first century, have their own historical narrative of the period. The following part will place this cultural encounter in its historical context.

Taiwan in late Ming: sampling a Dutch Formosa narrative

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Chinese settlers in Taiwan gradually encroached on the deer hunting fields of aborigines of the western plains, changing them into paddy fields and sugarcane plantations (Heyns 2003: 175). The appeal of deer hunting as well as the rice and sugar cultivation had come to bear fruit during the 38 years when parts of the island had gradually come under Dutch rule. In August 1624, a Dutch fleet dropped anchor off a narrow, sandy peninsula, enclosing a bay at the southwest coast of the main island. As earlier attempts to obtain a foothold on the Chinese coast had failed, the purpose of this fleet was to establish a trading post in order to open trade with nearby China. This was not long after the Dutch had established the VOC headquarters in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in 1604. In step with the practices of European overseas mercantile expansionism, they built a fortress, deployed an army and plans were set in motion for developing a town to be populated with Dutch families from Batavia and with Chinese, Japanese, natives and all others who would be prepared to gather under the authority of the Dutch Republic, represented in Asia by the VOC. Even a coat of arms for the towns was proposed: seven silver arrows, tied together, surrounded by a branch with oranges and leaves (van Veen 2003: 142). After the lease of land was concluded, requests were made from Batavia to send a few able senior and junior merchants accompanied by a number of assistants, and two or three proficient clergymen or readers to spread the Gospel. The attraction of the island was its strategic location as a stopping place for water refreshment for ships on the way to and from Japan. Hence, there was also the presence of a Japanese community on the island (see Iwao 1987, cited in Nakamura 1993: 142). At the time, trade between Japan and China was highly restricted, which had given rise to a flourishing black trade and pirating ventures using Taiwan as an illegal trading stop (Nagazumi 2003). Significantly, the arrival of the Dutch denoted the start of rendering Taiwan as an official entity in the intra-regional trading network. The island acquired a name and was recorded as the Tayouan Factory, Formosa, with the colonial town Zeelandia where the fortress was built near present-day Anping. The inhabitants, their habitat, languages and customs were meticulously noted in the Dutch administrative records, and with this institutionalization, a Dutch Formosa terminology was born. In 1626, the Spanish started a similar venture when they embarked on their journey and settled in the north.

Initial contact was sought with the Siraya people, who trace their ‘plains aborigines’ status back to the Dutch period. A plot of land was leased and the first clergyman, Georgius Candidius (1597–1647), started with the evangelizing of the aborigines. This was continued by his successor Robertus Junius (1606–1655), and by 1636 the first school was built, up and running. Education was by definition religious education, which taught students (children and adults, male and female) to spell, read and write in their native tongue. From 1648, instruction in Hollands was introduced (Heylen 2001, Chiu 2013). Schooling provided the natives with their own writing system and translations of the scriptures and Bible in the native tongues of Sinkan (southwest) and Favorolang (central). Unlike the practice in the East Indies, the Tayouan Factory was exceptional in its emphasis on evangelizing the native population.³ Generally speaking, the task of conversion focused on the Dutch congregation. However, in view of the Factory objectives, Dutch men were encouraged to marry native women as part of the settlement policy, and one could only be married when both were baptized. The promotion of Chinese conversions also had a secular angle; those who converted only had to pay half of the head or poll tax.

What were the objectives of the VOC Factory in Taiwan? The Factory was designed to function as an entrepôt within the large East and Southeast Asian market and within the intricate traffic of ships, merchandise, money and bullion to and from Hirado, the Chinese coast, Siam, Quinam, Patani and Batavia. At the end of 1629, the High Government of India in Batavia concluded that the situation in Taiwan was not as expected: ‘The Japanese are apparently discontented, the Spaniards are threatening Taijouwan, those from Mattau have murdered the best soldiers of the fort and the pirates render the Chinese coast unsafe that we are without trade; the Almighty, so we hope, will provide the best for the Company’ (cited in van Veen 2003: 146). Until 1640 the VOC Factory continued to be a losing proposition because the income from trade was insufficient to cover the costs of maintaining it. This loss was also related to the power game of the governors. From the beginning until the end the fortifications were enlarged, almost regardless of the costs, whereas the number of people considered to be necessary was dependent largely on the governor who was in charge, his ambitions and his experiences. Aspirations that flew too high were usually deflated by Batavia. But with the expansive movements to the north and the south, increasingly larger expeditionary forces were the order of the day, of which part remained behind as permanent garrisons. These expenditures on military manpower, fortifications and other buildings were justified in the face of the above-mentioned attacks.

In fact, for more than 20 years Batavia and the Gentlemen XVII accepted the negative results reported from Taiwan, hoping that eventually the VOC would succeed in gaining an established position in Chinese and Japanese trade.⁴ In 1650 their perseverance was rewarded. For another ten years the colony made a handsome profit, about 40 per cent of the total income. Profits were coming from taxation, which was closely related to policies of land ownership. The VOC acknowledged aboriginal use and enjoyment of the ancestral land through peace treaties with villages they subdued, while at the same time granting full land ownership to both Chinese settlers and VOC employees (Heyns 2003). These peace treaties were first concluded on 22 February 1636 by elders of 11 villages with the VOC by breaking a straw, the traditional way of making an oath. By this oath they were bound to serve their lord in all his wars, a task they fulfilled by serving as auxiliaries in several punitive expeditions. By 1644 these peace treaties were reorganized as landdagen (or diet), retaining the characteristics of the lord–vassal relationship. The vassals paid homage to their lord and the lord pledged to protec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• PART I Political history
• PART II Government and politics
• PART III Political economy
• PART IV Society and culture
• PART V Cross-Strait relations
• PART VI International relations and security
• Index