Present-day Taiwan Research Articles

Reputed Natives of Formosa

ABSTRACT This work of creative nonfiction begins with the last days of George Psalmanazar, an eighteenth-century fraud who claimed to be the first native of Formosa (present-day Taiwan) ever to visit Europe. Scholars believe that Psalmanazar’s fraudulent account, published in 1705, formed the birth of Taiwan studies in Europe, leading to an explosive scientific, commercial and evangelical interest in the island. The essay traces the entwined histories of camphor, Christianity, and indigeneity on the island in the centuries following Psalmanazar’s hoax.

“That Vast Quantity of Laudanum I Have Been Known to Take”

AbstractAn impostor who claimed to be a refugee from Formosa (present-day Taiwan) named George Psalmanazar (1679?–1763) embodied two key aspects of addiction in eighteenth-century Europe: its connections to globalization and imperialism, and the complex interplay between the concept of “positive” addictions (such as addiction to study, devotion, or duty) and the growing attention paid to “negative” ones (addiction to superstition, sexuality, or intoxicating substances). Constantly changing his identity in response to his audience’s expectations, Psalmanazar lived a life of continual performance—performance that hinged on trading one set of addictions for another. As he abandoned his falsified persona as an opiate-addicted, sexually licentious Taiwanese aristocrat, Psalmanazar embraced a postimposture persona as a pious scholar of religion who, like the holy men he studied, was “addicted to the reading . . . [of] sacred writings.” Strikingly, however, this second life as a humble scholar was sustained by regular opiate use. What had changed was how Psalmanazar thought about his use of the drug: no longer in the service of “vanity” or “extravagance” but instead in the service of God. With their blend of introspection and self-deception, Psalmanazar’s Memoirs (1764) index the changing social and cultural roles of opiates and the concept of addiction in eighteenth-century Europe and beyond.

The Application of Traditional Rules of Purity (Qinggui) in Contemporary Taiwanese Monasteries

Vinaya rules embody the ideal of how Buddhists should regulate their daily lives, and monastics are required to observe them, despite the fact that they were compiled nearly 2,500 years ago in India: a context dramatically different not only from Chinese Buddhism's present monastic conditions, but from its historical conditions. Against this backdrop, rules of purity (qinggui) were gradually formulated by Chinese masters in medieval times to supplement and adapt vinaya rules to China's cultural ethos and to specific local Chinese contexts. This study explores how the traditional qinggui are applied by the Buddhist sa?gha in present-day Taiwan, and contrasts modern monastics' opinions on these rules and their relation to early Buddhist vinaya, on the one hand, against classical Chan literature (such as Chanyuan qinggui) and the Buddhist canon (such as Dharmaguptakavinaya), on the other. This comparison fills a notable gap in the existing literature.

Application of Traditional Rules of Purity (Qinggui) in Contemporary Taiwanese Monasteries

Vinaya rules embody the ideal of how Buddhists should regulate their daily lives, and monastics are required to observe them, despite the fact that they were compiled nearly 2,500 years ago in India: a context dramatically different not only from Chinese Buddhism's present monastic conditions, but from its historical conditions. Against this backdrop, rules of purity (qinggui) were gradually formulated by Chinese masters in medieval times to supplement and adapt vinaya rules to China's cultural ethos and to specific local Chinese contexts. This study explores how the traditional qinggui are applied by the Buddhist sangha in present-day Taiwan, and contrasts modern monastics' opinions on these rules and their relation to early Buddhist vinaya, on the one hand, against classical Chan literature (such as Chanyuan qinggui) and the Buddhist canon (such as Dharmaguptakavinaya), on the other. This comparison fills a notable gap in the existing literature.

A Japanese engineer who became a Taiwanese deity: Postcolonial representations of Hatta Yoichi

Abstract Hatta Yoichi (1886–1942) was a Japanese engineer who designed and oversaw the construction of a massive reservoir in southern Taiwan, completed in 1930. He is a widely celebrated figure in present-day Taiwan, an island once ruled by Japan (1895–1945). Hatta is featured in books, music, manga, an animation film, a TV drama, a dance drama and a play. He has been deified; every year on 8 May, admirers flock in the hundreds to the Wushantou Reservoir to pay tribute to the famed engineer. In recent years, Wushantou has become a popular tourist attraction for both Japanese and Taiwanese. What is often overlooked, however, is the fact that Hatta, as a widely known figure, is a new discovery and modern invention; until the late 1980s, the famed engineer was virtually absent from public discourse and memory. This article examines how Hatta is represented in present-day popular culture, as well as how his legacy has been culturally produced and consumed by different civic and political groups in both Taiwan and Japan. This study demonstrates that new meanings have been added through the ongoing process of productions and consumptions, making the Japanese engineer look very different from who he was historically.

Geochemistry and petrology of the upper Silurian greywackes from the Holy Cross Mountains (Central Poland): implications for the Caledonian history of the southern part of the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The Ludlovian greywackes of the Holy Cross Mountains (HCM) represent a part of the sedimentary cover of the Łysogóry and Małopolska terranes located in the Trans-European Suture Zone, central Poland. The rocks form the sedimentary infill of the Caledonian foreland basin that developed at the Tornquist margin of Laurussia and had source-areas located on the orogen side of the basin. Until the present, the source terrane of the basin has not been identified in its potential location – at the south-west margin of the East European Platform. The Ludlovian greywackes of both parts of the HCM show a lot of similarities in clast spectrum, timing, and geochemical features, which implies similar sources of the clastic material. The petrographic modal composition and geochemical features indicate recycled orogen signatures with a distinct undissected, evolved magmatic arc component. The latter is particularly evident from the extraclast spectrum that contains andesite, trachyte and dacite clasts. Beside the volcanic rocks, the source area consisted of sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks with high amounts of cherts. The geochemical and petrological features in the rock succession point to an evolution of the tectonic setting from an active to a more passive margin type indicating synorogenic formation of the studied rocks. Based on the rock record, we suggest that the Upper Silurian greywackes originated as a result of the collision of the Tornquist margin of Laurussia with a volcanic arc (here: the Teisseyre Arc) – located probably at the easternmost extent of the Avalonian Plate. In this scenario, the arc-continent orogen was composed of an uplifted filling of the forearc basin, an accretionary prism, volcanic arc rocks, and an exhumed foreland basement - analogously to the present-day Taiwan orogen. The second key issue is the palaeogeographical relation between the Małopolska (Kielce Region) and the Łysogóry terranes in the Late Silurian. Despite the analogous grain composition and clast types, the Łysogóry Region greywackes are composed of distinctly more altered detritus, which is in accordance with the more distal character of the Łysogóry Basin. The latter is manifested, e.g., in the lack of Caledonian deformations. The present-day adjacency of both domains containing correlative greywacke formations coupled with contrasting alteration and Late Silurian transport directions parallel to the terrane boundary imply small to medium-scale (below palaeomagnetic resolution) left-lateral movements of the Małopolska and Łysogóry crustal blocks along the Holy Cross Fault in post-Silurian times.

Canadian diplomacy and the Offshore Islands Crisis, 1954–1955: A limited national interest

In September 1954 forces from the People’s Republic of China began shelling Chinese Nationalist positions on the tiny offshore islands that lay between the mainland and Formosa (present-day Taiwan). The outsized US response to this routine harassment sparked a Cold War confrontation that soon threatened to escalate out of control. This paper explores Canada’s stake in that crisis. It follows Ottawa’s early reaction to the events in the straits and traces foreign minister Lester B. Pearson’s mediatory efforts to promote negotiations and a peaceful settlement. Pearson’s liberal internationalist impulses, the paper argues, were always balanced and shaped by a realist calculation of where Canada’s national interest lay. His doubts about the wisdom of US policy and his commitment to allied unity ensured that he beat a dignified retreat when the circumstances for peacemaking proved unpropitious.

Instrumentalized History and the Motif of Repetition in News Coverage of Japan-Taiwan Relations

Examining the coverage in seven major Japanese and Taiwanese daily newspapers of a selection of events involving both societies in the first decade of the twenty-first century, this paper investigates the phenomenon of rhetorical instrumentalization of the past for present ideological purposes. The concerns of this study are the processes of dehistorization in Japanese and Taiwanese news and public debate, and through a critical thematic reading of the sources I argue that a motif of Taiwanese repetition and imitation of Japan runs through all the studied cases as a basic narrative formula. Analyzed cases include news presentations of Taiwanese politicians visiting Japan, controversial statements on Taiwan by a Japanese cabinet minister, infrastructure developments in present-day Taiwan and the controversy surrounding a Japanese guidebook to Taiwanese prostitution. Throughout the material, Taiwan is pictured as ideally progressing along a trajectory marked out by Japan and the two are cast in fixed roles that recall their relative positions in the half-century of Japanese colonization of Taiwan: Japan teaches Taiwan order, unity and modern development and Taiwan studies Japan’s past to overcome the challenges of its own present. Or Taiwan spontaneously imitates Japanese precedence as a consequence of its own development. This paper fundamentally challenges the rationale underlying strategic instrumentalization of the past and draws critical attention to the paradoxical fact that the use of the repetition formula positions the covered news events in a thematic field of time-lag and retrospection. (Less)

Pro-colonial or Postcolonial? Appropriation of Japanese Colonial Heritage in Present-day Taiwan

Since the end of World War II, the Kuomintang (KMT) (Guomindang) government has erased all traces of Japanese rule from public space, deeming them “poisonous” to the people in Taiwan. This frenzy, often termed “de-Japanization” or qu Ribenhua in Chinese, included the destruction and alteration of Japanese structures. Yet, with democratization in the 1990s, the Japanese past has been revisited, and many Japanese structures have been reconstructed and preserved. This paper examines the social phenomenon of preserving Japanese heritage in present-day Taiwan. It mainly investigates religious/ spiritual architecture, such as Shinto shrines and martial arts halls ( Butokuden), war monuments and Japanese statues and busts. A close investigation of these monuments finds that many of them are not restored and preserved in their original form but in a deformed/ transformed one. This finding leads the paper to conclude that the phenomenon is a postcolonial endeavour, rather than being “pro-colonial”, and that the preservation of Japanese heritage contributes to the construction and consolidation of a Taiwan-centric historiography in which Taiwan is imagined as multicultural and hybrid.

Achieving Effective Governance under Divided Government and Private Interest Group Pressure: Taiwan's 2001 Financial Holding Company Law

For emerging democracies, how to reach state–society equilibriums conducive to both democratization and effective governance has been a most challenging issue. Illustrating such a predicament, in present-day Taiwan a situation of ‘divided government’ has been widely regarded in the literature as implying frequent legislative–executive stalemate and ineffective governance. In this article, we argue that while power games among the three conventional branches of government—the executive, legislature, and judiciary—may continue to produce a governmental stalemate equilibrium, the entry of increasingly important media and interest group players into the policy-making arena in Taiwan has shown strong potential to make up for the institutional failing of divided government. Drawing on the adoption process of the 2001 Financial Holding Company Law, we examine the conditions under which effective governance can still be achieved in Taiwan. Our analysis shows that concerted media pressure can succeed in forcing Taiwan's major parties to jointly pursue beneficial legislation. The analysis also suggests that interest group involvement in Taiwanese policy-making does not necessarily lead to crippling ‘regulatory capture’ but, on the contrary, can entail welfare enhancing change.

Taiwan's Political Parties and National Identity: The Rise of an Overarching Consensus

National identity is still one of the most contentious issues in present-day Taiwan. At the surface level, the confrontation between the “pan-blue” and “pan-green” party camps suggests the existence of competing and irreconcilable national identities. However, the overall quest for Taiwanese sovereignty against Beijing's insistence on the “one country, two systems” formula suggests the rise of an overarching consensus between all political parties that reflects the fact that a Taiwanese nation already exists. Although civic in nature, this nation may soon close ranks against the idea of “one China” if Beijing does not compromise on the issue of sovereignty.

House United, House Divided: The Chinese Family in Taiwan

Through a study of the Chinese family in Yen-liao, a farming village in southwestern Taiwan, House United, House Dividedgives a new view of the forces that keep Chinese families together or encourage them to divide. While all major forms of the traditional Chinese family are well represented in the village, the settlement is notable for its many large or joint families whose members in fact constitute the majority of the village's population. Based on the author's firsthand observations of the Chinese family, the book presents a wealth of new infomation on family economic and social organization. Emphasizing the process with which simpler families develop into forms and subsequently become divided, Dr. Cohen discusses the importance of the family estate and the changing social and economic positions of key family members under the impact of major domestic events. This fascinating study gives the first comprehensive treatment of the economic role of women in the traditional Chinese family.In addition the extraordinary conjunction between modernization and tradition in present-day Taiwan makes it possible to learn a geat deal about the dynamics of change in traditional chinese society.

The Role of Grandmothers in Taiwanese Family Socialization

island of Taiwan (Formosa) was settled in the 17th century by immigrants from the coastal areas of southeastern China, the majority coming from regions near the city of Amoy in Fukien province. families now known as native are descendents of these early migrants, and they continue to speak the Hokkien (Fukienese) language. In 1949, another wave of immigration occurred after the Communist victory on the mainland of China. came from many different provinces, but most speak one or another of the northern dialects, all variants of Mandarin, the national language, which is also taught in the schools. Mainlanders now comprise about 20 percent of the island's inhabitants. Taiwan is small and densely populated. Although it covers 14,000 square miles, about two-thirds of this area is ruggedly mountainous and inhabited primarily by tribes of aboriginal peoples. remaining land is crowded with over 14 million people, and intensively cultivated in rice, sugar cane and tropical fruits. island is undergoing rapid industrialization, and over half the work force is presently engaged in nonagricultural occupations. As is the case elsewhere, industrialization and urbanization are bringing changes in family life. Nonetheless, many traditional values and behaviors endure. Chinese family system is patrilineal and patrilocal, with the ideal domestic grouping being a large joint family of three or four generations. attainment of this ideal as never been very frequent in practice, however. For various economic and sociodynamic reasons, families almost inevitably divide into smaller units upon the death of the oldest male, and many do so prior to this time. most common types of households in present-day Taiwan, as has always been the case in China, are small three-generation stem and two-generation nuclear families. These ordinarily represent different stages in the family life cycle, so that most people have experienced living in both types of families at different times in their lives. Traditionally, marriages were arranged for young people who did not meet until their wedding day. Today there is more participation by the young couple in the mate selection process, but even in urban areas, most matches are heavily influenced by the wishes of the two sets of parents. bride and groom begin their married life with the groom's parents, and may continue this arrangement for many years. younger *The research on which this paper is based was supported by NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship MH-33,218, and by research grants from the London-Cornell Project and the Cornell China Program. Greater detail concerning the methodology of the study, problems of field work, etc., may be found in my Ph.D. thesis, The effect of household composition in the child rearing practices of Taiwanese families, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell Uniiversity, 1971. Melvin Kohn, Joseph DeMartini and Stephen Olsen helped to improve this paper by offering critical comments on an earlier draft.