- Publisher
:
Scribe Publications (April 3, 2024)
- Language
:
English
- Hardcover
:
320 pages
- ISBN-10
:
1915590272
- ISBN-13
:
978-1915590275
- Item Weight
:
3.52 ounces
- Dimensions
:
6.02 x 1.07 x 9.21 inches
The gripping history of Taiwan, from the flood myths of indigenous legend to its Asian Tiger economic miracle — and the renewed threat of invasion by China.
Once dismissed by the Kangxi Emperor as nothing but a ‘ball of mud’, Taiwan has a modern GDP larger than that of Sweden, in a land area smaller than Indiana. It is the last surviving enclave of the Republic of China, a lost colony of Japan, and claimed by Beijing as a rogue province — merely the latest chapters in its long history as a refuge for pirates, rebels, settlers, and outcasts.
Jonathan Clements examines the unique conditions of Taiwan’s archaeology and indigenous history, and its days as a Dutch and Spanish trading post. He delves into its periods as an independent kingdom, Chinese province, and short-lived republic, and the transformations wrought by 50 years as part of the Japanese Empire. He examines the traumatic effects of its role as a lifeboat in 1949 for two million refugees from Communism, and the conflicts emerging after the suspension of four decades of martial law, as its people debate issues of self-determination, independence, and home rule.