The Geographer and Taiwan

Abstract

Ihe number of geographers interested in China is small and, as some have claimed, their overall contributions to the scholarly literature on contemporary and historical China have not been great. Explanations for this persisting condition have been oflered by several writers, some of whom have isolated research themes that could be pursued by geographers.l There are encouraging signs that the small numbers of geographers with an interest in China are increasing and that areas, subjects and approaches formerly avoided are now being addressed. Taiwan figures prominently in these interests. It is easy to question the value of Taiwan studies when so many challenges confront scholars in their search for understanding China proper, but it may well be that research efforts that illuminate the cultural and economic geography of Taiwan do not necessarily detract from efforts better spent on contemporary China. Indeed, Taiwan's continuing accessibility for field study offers the researcher experiences and insights concerning Chinese economic and social realities that can be brought to bear on topics that relate to the contemporary geography of China. American geographers, like other social scientists, were not quick to take advantage of the accessibility of Taiwan after 1945. It appears that most social scientists considered Taiwan a backwater area, neither representative of contemporary developments in China nor of sufficient historical importance to merit attention. It is true that Taiwan's separate developmental path from that of post-1949 China marks the island as an unsatisfactory surrogate for the documentation of mainland social and economic change. On the other hand, the economic progress made in Taiwan during the first half of this century under