Matô and Kari as Examples of Compound Settlments in Taiwan (Formosa)

Abstract

There are two local towns, Matô and Kari, on the southwestern coastal plain of Taiwan. They lie about 20km north of Tainan City (the Capital of Tainan Prefecture), the former being situated 6km east of the latter. At the end of 1934, their respective populations were 11, 468 and 7, 655, the majority consisting of descendants of Chinese immigrants during the last three centuries (Matô 96%, Kari 90%). The two towns are represented by closely combined quarters of two different settlement forms, rural and urban, both having nearly the same population, for which reason the writer introduces them as examples of the socalled compound settlement. The rural settlement form of both towns under consideration, which is the compact type similar to most rural settlements predominating throughout South Taiwan, is distinguished from the scattered types so common in the northern part of the island. On the whole, the type of the rural settlement form in Taiwan follows that of the Chinese mainland beyond the strait. And since the rural settlement quarter is generally inhabited by farmers, whose houses are surrounded by small fields, vegetable gardens, or Citrus orchards, the area of the rural quarters is very extensive, the whole pattern of farmhouses being rather that of the scattered type as compared with the other ordinary compact forms that have neither fields nor gardens in their premises. Moreover, every farmhouse and on the borders of every premise are planted bamboo hedges and betel-nut trees, so that the rural quarter as a whole looks like a large forest. The commercial quarters of these two towns are on the whole surrounded by rural settlements, and along the main communication roads through them, assume urban forms of “Strassendorf”. Both sides of the street are lined with retail and handicraft shops, markets, and official buildings. Thanks to the recent city improvements, the cultural landscape of the commercial quarters of both towns is fairly good with a modern aspect. The formation of these compound settlements of the rural-urban settlement suggests that they represent a general tendency toward urbanization during the course of the development of all rural settlements. In other parts of Taiwan, however, almost all the rural settlements and the local commercial towns are at present separated from each other. The particularly extensive areas occupied by the rural quarters of the two towns under consideration are mainly due to fertile soil and favourable water supply, these two important factors facilitating intensive farm management and rural living. The more extensive the development of the rural quarters, the more active are the commercial centers, said activities being enhanced by various causes political and industrial. It seems that originally the commercial center started in the form of a market in the foreground of shrines, gradually growing later to a “Strassendorf” with the development of commercial facilities along the main road.