333
China's Island Frontiers Studies in the Historical Geography of Taiwan. Edited by Ronald G. Knapp. The University Press of Hawaii and The Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1980. xv. 296 p. 41 figures.
As the cover jacket to this book states "This collection of essays is not a comprehensive treatment but a multifaceted look at the patterns and processes of Taiwan's historical geography." The range of the eleven essays is quite broad. The editor, however, has grouped them under two headings: the first includes essays on migration and rural settlement, and the second on urbanization and economic integration.
The first article by Wen-hsiung Hsu traces the development of Taiwan from an island inhabited solely by Malayo-Polynesian speaking aboriginal groups to a Han-Chinese primary settlement frontier by 1683. This study uses mainly Chinese sources and a Dutch source, plus some archeological information on pre-historic Taiwan. No Spanish or Portuguese documents are consulted. Hsu's viewpoint of early Taiwan's political history is summed up in the conclusion: “Taiwan is the only Chinese area that has been colonized by three foreign powers: the Dutch (1624-1662), the Spanish (1626-1642), and the Japanese (1895-1945)” (p. 28, italics mine). In my opinion, the Chinese were one of many foreign groups encroaching upon the island during the early colonization of Taiwan and only the Japanese can be said to have colonized a truly "Chinese area”.
The second chapter by I-shou Wang, “Cultural Contact and the Migration of Taiwan's Aborigines: A Historical Perspective" describes the problems the aborigines have encountered under each period of political control and colonization starting from the Dutch period and ending with the current Chinese period (1945 to present). Wang is objective in his view of Taiwan's settlement history, but he does not draw any comparative conclusions concerning aboriginal treatment during the various periods mentioned.
In the third chapter, Ronald G. Knapp focuses on a case study of settlement and land tenure on the Taoyuan plain concentrating on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Knapp describes in detail the tenancy rights found during the early eighteenth century.