I agree. I think a list in English can help the people who should be learning the most. If you can read and write, you already have access to a wider variety of materials. And I really don’t want to sift through more books in my library…
We can include Western languages other than English (such as French and German) on this list. But for titles in Chinese, let’s use [url=Books in Chinese about Taiwan different thread[/url].
I did that a couple of days ago. But there are a few more threads on this I need to clean up.
I’m in the middle of Richard Bush’s new book on US-Taiwan relations called At Cross Purposes: US-Taiwan Relations Since 1942 (M.E. Sharpe, 2004). Great so far, with chapter one dealing with Roosevelt’s decision to “give” Taiwan to China based on his personal vision of a multi-lateral post-war order comprised of 4 Policemen (US, China, Russia and Britain). Also covers Soong Mei-ling’s effective strategy of making end runs around the State Department to influence Roosevelt’s China policy.
Chapter 2 deals with Washington’s (at times strenuous) efforts to overlook KMT human rights abuses in favor of propping up CKS’s regime in Taiwan. Good overview of the relevant cases of the time: 228, the beginning of White Terror, Lei Zhen, Peng Minming, et al.
The rest of the book covers the US’s varying definitions of the ROC/ Taiwan, the “Sacred Texts” of US-China-Taiwan relations, congressional action in support of human rights in Taiwan, and the post-Tiananmen era of US-China relations.
Bush’s goal is to trace the US’s China/ Taiwan policy through 60 years of change, filling in gaps with some impressive access to State Department documents. He admits the research would be much more exhaustive if Taiwan were to open up its foreign ministry files. His style is very accessable to newcomers, yet detailed enough to make foreign policy geeks slobber mightily.
Anyone else read this?
I recommend Elegy of Sweet Potatoes by Tehpen Tsai, very well translated into English by Grace Hatch. It’s a highly readable and moving first-hand account by a teacher of his arrest, interrogation, imprisonment, trial and sentencing to “re-education” (he was a great deal luckier than most) under the White Terror in the 1950s. As well as his own story, he tells us about many fellow inmates he got to know in jail, most of whom were ordinary, decent people who were completely innocent of anything that could possibly justify their having been arrested but who nevertheless were doomed to end up among the countless victims of Chiang Kai-shek’s firing squads.
I defy anyone to read this and still have anything to say in defence of Chiang’s brutal dictatorship and his merciless oppression of the Taiwanese.
Funny, there are so few books that actually present the Chiang regimes as heroic defenders of “Free China” and an enclave of Democracy. I do have a really great KMT propaganda book from 1984, called "Taiwanese Origins-Chinese Origins. The book is about the Chinese origins of Taiwanese and how Chinese are always Chinese, but foreign women who marry a Chinese man can be Chinese too…a nod to CCK and his wife. Maybe ac_dropout will want to read it? The author is the pseudonym Lao Bing. Published by the National Uprightiousness Publishing Company. Brain washing books for kids.
Pickering, W.A. 1898. Pioneering In Formosa. London, Hurst and Blackett, Republished 1993, Taipei, SMC Publishing. ISBN 957-638-163-0:
Clements, Jonathan. Pirate King: Coxinga and The Fall of the Ming Dynasty. 2004. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3269-4
Although the bulk of this book concerns events in 17th century China, the influence of Zheng Cheng Gong can not be denied in Taiwan. Clements writes a rip-roaring tale free of the political-historical narratives that have been leveraged by the PRC, ROC and Japan to better link the island of Taiwan to their respective governments. Clements writes intimate details of the characters in a way that brings Iquan, Peter Nyuts, Coxinga, Adam Schall and others to life in living color.
Where can we buy the Koxinga book?
Brian
I ordered it on line from Alibris Online Books
Where can we buy this?
[quote]Omniloquacious wrote:
I recommend Elegy of Sweet Potatoes by Tehpen Tsai
Where can we buy this?[/quote]
I’ve seen it at Eslite (main Taipei branch)
Brian
[quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote]Omniloquacious wrote:
I recommend Elegy of Sweet Potatoes by Tehpen Tsai
Where can we buy this?[/quote]
I’ve seen it at Eslite (main Taipei branch)
Brian[/quote]
Yes, that’s where I bought mine.
Wachman, Alan M. 1994. Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization. New York, M.E. Sharpe, Inc. ISBN 1-56324-399-7
For pure fun, it’s hard to beat Pickering’s Pioneering in Formosa and Rutter’s Through Formosa.
While not a history book, or even non-fiction for that matter, Catherine Dai’s book of short stories – Bound Feet – provides some very interesting insights into 1980s Taiwan. It used to be available at Cave’s, although I haven’t seen it there for a while. I last bought a copy in Kaohsiung…
Wilson, Richard W. 1970. Learning To Be Chinese:The Political Socialization of Children in Taiwan. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
This is a detailed and sometimes chilling study of the KMT’s efforts to nationalize children and support KMT/ROC ideology. The author uses interviews with children between first and sixth grade to elucidate the effects of the socialization process. Often, he employs a method using undefined pictures of social scenes to draw responses from school children.
Quote:" In elementary school the flag is introduced into textbooks and is on the cover of the readers the children use from first through fourth grade, waving over a group of playing children. Such insertions of national symbols are by no means accidental or merely decorative; educational authorities told me that these insertions were made with definite intention of familiarizing children with an appropriate symbol for the country…In Kindergarten children begin to hear ‘We are Chinese and we all love China. Our China’s territory is the largest, the population the greatest, and our products the most abundant.’…A sign in the T’ao Yuan local government office, for instance, requests the local people to speak Mandarin, for, ‘To speak Mandarin expresses love for the country’.
Interview:Q: Do you think the policeman is always right?
A: Yes
Q: Is there any time when he does something wrong?
A: No
Q: Is their any time when your Daddy, mommy or teacher make mistakes?
A: No
Q: What happens if a policman makes a mistake?
A: Someone higher up will arrest him and kill him
Q: Can we criticize a policeman?
A: No, we must say he is good. If we say he is bad, we’ll be arrested.
(Shift to a meeting scene with authority figure at podium)
Q: Who is the person up there?
A: He is a great person
Q: Why can he be a great person?
A: He is a person who shoots a gun and fights with the Father of our Country (appears he means CKS)
Q: When he speaks will everyone down below obey him?
A: Yes, they will obey him. Not to obey wouldn’t be right.
Q: What happens if they don’t obey?
A: They will be arrested by the great man.
Gold, Thomas B. 1986. State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle. New York, M.E. Sharpe, Inc. ISBN 0-87332-399-8
A great book for understanding the dynamism of the Taiwan economic miracle. Gold demonstrates Taiwan’s unique situation that laid the groundwork for the economic boom of the 80’s and 90’s.
Cohen, Marc J. 1988. Taiwan at the Crossroads: Human Rights, Political Development and Social Change on the Beautiful Island. Asia Resource Center, Washington D.C.
Marc Cohen is the former editor of the Taiwan Communique and heavily involved in the advancement of human rights, so KMT apologists would not like this book, which details the human rights abuses commited under White Terror in KMT Taiwan. This book provides the grousome details of the successive Chiang regimes and dredges up skeletons from the KMT closet.
Quote: "On October 17, 1984 (Two days after the Liu murder), the key officials involved in censorship held a secret meeting. Those present included Chang Ching-yuh, The U.S. educated director of government information; James Soong, the KMT’s Cultural Affairs chief; the Garrison Commander; the chiefs of the National Police Administration, the Investigation Bureau and the Political Warfare Department of the Defense Ministry; and the Deputy chief of the National Security Bureau. The first two officials,long considered liberals by Americansupporters of the KMT, appeared to take as hard line a stance on censorship as the security personnel.
An employee of the GIO later leaked the minutes of the meeting to the opposition press on Taiwan; he received a short jail term as a result. Although the government heavily censored those magazines which printed the minutes, they enjoyed wide underground circulation. Trhe London-based Index on Censorship printed a translation, along with a commentary by James Seymour, a leading US analyst of politics and human rights on Taiwan. Seymour’s analysis and translation were reprinted in the record of a U.S. Congressional hearing…(In the minutes) The Garrison commander spoke of the need to ‘suppress’ what he called ’ thought pollution’ and referred to censorship as a form of ‘warfare’. The minutes also portray government spokesman Changas making repeated referenceto the ’ illegal’ and ‘extremist’ nature of the opposition press, and openly suggesting that the mere expression of an opinioncan, in and of itself, be illegal.In addition, his remarks clearly seemed to imply that the officials involved in censorship see no distinction between the party and the government.
The other ‘liberal’ at the meeting went even further, according to the minutes. He spoke not only of the ‘control of culture’, words used by the Garrison Commander as well, and of ’ illegal opinions’, but of ‘the elimination of dissent’. Most significantly, both he and Chang pointed to the use of libel suits, brought ostensibly by private individuals, as the most appropriate way to attack the opposition press, since, in Soong’s words the ’ suits are a normal practice in democratic countries’.
oops! Soong is that “other liberal” at the end there…
I recently donloaded this and had it printed (cost about NT$500) and am enjoying the read. Was there ever a chinese version? I find it a little difficult to get she who must be obeyed interested in her own history. I think if there was a chinese version I could give her then I might stand a 50:50 chance of her reading it. With the english version the odds become similar to my football team winning the league, and they ain’t good!
there is a Chinese version for sale at most book stores called Bei Chu Mai de Taiwan. I bought a copy of the original for $35 online. The going rate is now about $70 USD.
Phillips, Steven E. 2003. Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter With Nationalist China 1945-1950. California, Stanford University Press, ISBN-0-8047-4457-2
Phillips focuses his survey on the views of the Taiwanese elite during the period immediately following the Japanese surrender. This book makes a clearly non-politicized study of Taiwanese aspirations for self-rule and their desire to determine their relationship with the R.O.C. Due to the recent liberalization of the Taiwanese academic establishment, Phillips uses recently released documents, letters and diaries to illuminate how the elite was drawn into a struggle against the KMT’s vision for Taiwan. One of the most interesting discoveries made by Phillips is that the 228 uprising was not led and encouraged by the elite, but was rather a popular rebellion that the elite attempted to mediate. Fantastic book!
These books are IMHO fascinating background for a Westerner to understand Taiwan, Japan, and the influence of Japan on Taiwan. Wondering if anyone else has read them and what you thought.
The Enigma of Japanese Power by Karel von Wolferen
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679728023/
…a brilliant, if often infuriating and depressing, analysis of the way power is wielded in Japanese society. Having lived in Japan for six years now and having heard every conceivable interpretation of this culture by both westerners and Japanese, I have found nothing that even remotely approximates the accuracy of Van Wolferen’s insights. I have seen the “the System” he describes at work, as it crushes the spirits of the good men and women of this country, demoralizing them until they meekly accept their “proper place.” Van Wolferen’s cool, clinical dissection of the central myths of Japanese society was so uncomfortably close to the mark that “the System” could not afford to let it go unchallenged. In fact, shortly after its publication a Japanese diplomat approached Clyde Prestowitz, an American expert on Japan, and through the use of an oblique threat, tried to enlist him in an effort to discredit Van Wolferen. For anyone who is interested in learning about how Japan really works this book is an excellent place to start.
Taiwan - A Political History by Denny Roy
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801488052/
Nowhere else will readers find such an even-handed, thorough, and accurate account of Taiwan’s recent history. What is more, the book is a pleasure to read, balancing rich historical details and anecdotes with thoughtful analysis. Roy’s book provides the most complete and in-depth account of Taiwan’s post-World War II political development available in English. However, much of the value of the book comes from his determination to situate the island’s postwar history in the context of Taiwan’s pre-war experience. As a result, Roy is able to offer satisfying answers to some of the most puzzling issues facing students of contemporary Taiwan, including islanders’ complicated feelings toward Japan, China–even Taiwan itself.
Move this to the Culture/History forum if you must, but IMHO its is hard to discuss current events without the background of these books.