Letters to the Editor

How Taiwan became Chinese Andrew Leonard [2007-04-05]

• What is Chinese?

  Michael Turton's point is well taken. Culture is not monolithic, and he’s right to speak in terms of Chinese cultures, plural, since different regions of China have their own cuisines, their own architectural styles, even their own languages, as different from each other as Spanish is from Romanian. That said, it's hard to deny that Taiwan's dominant culture is Chinese. What I try to show in the book is that it could have turned out differently. In the early 1600s Taiwan's inhabitants were, as danstr noted in his post, Malayo-Polynesian (or Austronesian). The Japanese were landing there, as were Chinese pirates, Portuguese castaways, Spanish priests, and, most importantly, the Dutch, who established the first formal colony.

  So it's odd that despite the fact that the Dutch were the first to establish political control (followed by the Spanish in northern Taiwan two years later), the island nonetheless ended up culturally and politically Chinese. In fact, Taiwan was the only overseas territory added to Late Imperial China. And the really strange thing is that Taiwan became Chinese thanks largely to Dutch colonial policies! So Taiwan's story has a lot to teach us about globalization and colonization. It also helps us understand Taiwan today, because the island’s current brand of Chinese culture is partly a result of the blending that began occurring way back then, in the early stages of Taiwanese history.

  -- Tonio Andrade
  [Read Tonio Andrade's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Friday, April 6, 2007 12:40 PM
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