The History of Taiwan

Taiwan, originally named "Tapanga" by the aborigines, is an island initially inhabited by nine ethnic groups of aborigines belonging to Malayo-Polynesian system. The island was later renamed "Formosa" by the Portuguese. Since the 6th century, Chinese have emigrated to the island. Because the Chinese government originally prohibited official settlement of the island, Chinese emigres were either criminals or desperate peasants from the south-coast provinces.

With the coming of European imperialism to the Pacific, settlement of the island by both the Dutch and Spanish began in 1624, and the island entered her first period of colonial occupation. Han immigrants from mainland China played the role of mediators between the colonials and the aborigines. Like many other colonized countries in Asia and Africa, the western imperialists were interested only in colonial exploitation of the island's resources. While Taiwan became the supplier of raw materials for the Dutch, the development of the island had to wait until 1661 when Taiwan fell under the control of the Chinese. During this period, the population of Chinese immigrants rose to nearly 3 million. At this time, Taiwan shifted from an "immigrant society" to a "native society." (The terms are from anthropologist Chen Qinan) Painstaking assimilation or integration among various clans and sub-ethnic groups gradually occurred. Also, the Chinese government changed its prohibition policy and encouraged emigration to Taiwan. The aborigines during this period were either "assimilated" into the dominant Han culture or forced to emigrate to the interior and start their segregated life.

In 1895, about the time of the birth of cinema, China ceded Taiwan to Japan at the end of the first Sino-Japanese war and Taiwan entered another colonial period for 50 years. Japan colonized the island in the face of strong hostility from both Taiwanese and aborigines. After several massacres, the Japanese began their colonization. They attempted to "Japanize" the Taiwanese by making Japanese the official language of education and government. To this day, many older people in Taiwan can speak Japanese. During the war, the island was used as a major staging ground for the Japanese and upon their surrender it was passed on to the Nationalist government on the mainland. The Taiwanese celebrated their liberation from Japan, but it soon became clear that the mainlanders basically intended to maintain the colonial structures of exploitation only with Nationalist (Koumingtang [KMT] or Guomingdang) Chinese in control. When the Taiwanese rebelled in 1947, they were massacred in what is known as the February 28 Incident.