Rubinstein - Taiwan: A New History

A New History

Expanded Edition

Murray A. Rubinstein, Editor

An East Gate Book

First published 2007 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Taiwan : a new history, expanded edition/edited by Murray A. Rubinstein.

p. cm.

An East Gate book.

Includes index.

ISBN-10: 0-7656-1494-4 (cloth : alk. paper); ISBN-13: 978-0-7656-1494-0 (cloth : alk paper)

ISBN-10: 0-7656-1495-2 (pbk.: alk. paper); ISBN-13: 978-0-7656-1495-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. TaiwanHistory. I. Rubinstein, Murray, A., 1942

ISBN 13: 9780765614957 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9780765614940 (hbk)

Much has happened in Taiwan since the first edition of this book appeared in 1999. The narrative of the first edition ended in late 1996, seven months after the second inauguration of President Lee Teng-hui and Vice President Lien Chan. Lee, then a member of the Kuomintang, was the first popularly elected president to take power in the history of the Republic of China, an event singular in its significance. Yet Lee was also a lame duck and began making the mistakes that lame ducks often make in their attempts to forestall their loss of real and effective power. In this edition, that original postscript has become, in the able hands of Cal Clark, a full-scale chapter that covers the events of Lees second term as well as the first term and subsequent reelection of Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.

I would like to thank my fourteen co-authors and my editors, Doug Merwin, now head of his own press, East Bridge, and Patricia Loo editor of Asian Studies at M.E. Sharpe. I must also thank those at M.E. Sharpe, Inc. for inaugurating and continuing to publish the series Taiwan in the Modern World.

I am happy to report that the first edition has been embraced by the critics in the major journals and widely adopted for teaching purposes. I hope that this second edition will do even more by serving as a starting point for future research and stimulating new students to pursue further research on the history of Taiwan as it moves into the twenty-first century.

Murray A. Rubinstein

Taiwans past is encountered wherever one travels on this small, crowded, and, perhaps, overdeveloped island. To understand the dramatic and sometimes chaotic chronicle that is Taiwans history, one must first gain some sense of place and some appreciation for how geography helped to define this islands multilayered pastfrom sites that reflect the islands present, on to places that reflect the dawn of the islands written history as home of Australasian immigrants, as new-found home of land-hungry southeastern Chinese settlers, and as one of the two island frontiers of imperial China.

Taipei is the heart of this modern Taiwan, the islands bustling, traffic-clogged, major city, which hosts the national government of this political entity dominated by the Nationalist Party (KuomintangKMT) that continues to call itself the Republic of China (ROC). There are located the governments executive offices, cabinet ministries, legislative assemblies, highest courts, and examination and control branches. Here are also the homes of the islands major electronic media, three government-dominated television stations, and the major newspapers. Here, too, in the city and its nearby suburbs are three of the islands major public universities: National Taiwan University (Tai-ta), Taiwan Political Affairs University (Cheng-ta), and Taiwan Normal University (Shih-ta). The city also serves as a cultural hub. Thus the major museumsthe world-renowned Palace Museum, the Museum of History, and the Taipei Museum of Modern Artare in or near the city. The states two largest memorials cum cultural centers, the performance halls of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall are, respectively, in the citys governmental and financial districts.

The sprawling city and suburbs that make up the Taipei special administrative district are both the center of national development and the stronghold of the ethnic mainlander (wai-sheng jen) population that still dominates the organs of the central government. Taipei thus can be seen as a city approaching the world-class status that befits the hub of a state that is a small, but still dynamic, East Asian economic and political power center. Another, and in many ways very different, Taiwan can be found to the south of this increasingly sophisticated city.

Our journey into Taiwans past begins here in Taipei, at the front gate of the park that houses the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. In March 1990 this gate and the steps of a nearby theater were the site of a dramatic sit-in staged by students of the ROCs major universities. These students were demanding political change and, following in the footsteps of Peking University students at Tiananmen Square ten months before, attempting to pressure their government and induce it to promise constructive reforms. Conscious of the events in Beijing (Peking), and well aware of the worldwide reaction to these events, the regime leaders remained calm and, through an intermediary, negotiated a peaceful settlement with the students. This settlement paved the way for the formation of the National Consultative Assembly. This meeting, held early in the summer of 1990, brought together people of diverse backgrounds and opinions and promoted the discussion of many of the major political problems that faced Taiwan as it attempted to democratize.

Just to the south and west of Taipeis urban core lies the suburb of Panchiao. Here, amid the choking sprawl that is typical of the nearby suburbs of Taipei and the other large cities of the island, is a large square block that is a refuge from the crowded neighborhood. It is surrounded by a window to the quieter times when Taiwan was a prefecture of the Ching empire: the walled complex that was the home of the Lins, one of the two large and powerful landlord/gentry families that shared the same surname. The estate, once neglected, has been refurbished, and visitors can obtain a published guide to the buildings, gardens, and pavilions of the complex. Wandering through these grounds, one can tune out the modern city and imagine the world in which these gentry on the Ching maritime frontier lived.