怎麼向外國人介紹台灣歷史
我幾年前寫過一篇怎麼帶外國人遊台灣後, 就有人問過我要怎麼向外國人介紹台灣(歷史). 也如同我一貫的風格一樣, 我答應了網友要寫, 就是一直沒動作(但我一直記得). 最近剛好帶了三個美國的青少年遊台灣(分別是14, 17和18歲), 在蘭陽博物館時我隨口用英文簡述了一下台灣歷史. 沒想到三位青少年還聽得津津有味, 所以我也就把這份介紹放上來. 因為這是臨時講的, 也是口語, 用字不見得很精準. 但可以供後續需要的人作參考.
Geographically, Taiwan is an island on the
south-east to mainland China. Pretty much like Cuba to US continental and
Beijing is just like Washington D.C. In the mainland era, nobody cared about
islands and ocean…so Taiwan was long long time an abandoned island, only
pirates and fishermen used it as supply base.
Then it comes to early 15th
century, as you know the “Great voyage era” or “Era of Discoveries”. Started by
Portuguese, they crossed the south Africa to India and then to China. They
occupied Macau as base to do business with China. Followed by Spanish, they
occupied Philippine and you know, that is how Philippine got its name. It is named after
Spanish Prince “Philip”. Then, Spanish
moved north and occupied north of Taiwan. (Spanish ever
occupied Taiwan?) Exactly, we still have two popular Spanish city names
in Taiwan. One is Santiago, the other is Fort San Domingo. (p.s 三雕角和淡水紅毛城). Also, between Taiwan and China, yes, that’s Taiwan Strait, there
are a serial islands. In Chinese, we call it Penghu(澎湖) but guess
what is its western name? It is “Pescardores”…What is it in Spanish? Exactly,
the “fishermen”.
By the way, Taiwan has a nickname called
“Formosa”. What is that in Spanish? (Hermosa?).
Yes, it is from Spanish or Portuguese, "isle Hermosa", which means beautiful
island. If pay attention, you will see it in airport or lots of places.
The 3rd European to Asia is
Dutch. They occupied Indonesia for spices but it is too far to deal with China
and Japan. So, they tried to attack Macau but failed. So they found Penghu(Pescadores) and built a fort over there. But they were
expelled by China government so eventually retreated to Taiwan.
The Dutch landed in the south of Taiwan,
where is now the Tainan (台南) city. The funny thing is when the Dutch
first contacted 台南 aboriginals. Normally, what is your
first question after long lost cruise? “Where are we, right? “. Those aboriginals
answered “Taiwan”. So the Dutch recognized and recorded this place as Taiwan
and Taiwan became this island’s name. But, the truth is those aboriginals
didn’t know at all what the Dutch was talking about. They yelled “Taiwan”
because Taiwan in their language means “foreigner”. That is a beautiful mistake.
The Dutch were reluctant to Taiwan in the
beginning but eventually found Taiwan a treasury island because Taiwan was abundant
with deer everywhere and perfect weather for sugarcane. So the Dutch made a big
fortune by exporting deer leather and sugar from Taiwan.
Meanwhile, an upheaval happened in
mainland, the barbarians from north-east rise. If you see some old movies and pics, you may see very old traditional Chinese with half-bold forehead and a pig tail on the back, that is their mark. They defeated the Ming Empire
which controlled the mainland. The royal families moved south and south and
finally failed. At that time, a general who is loyal to Ming, led his troop
trying to fight with barbarians but didn’t work. Then, one subordinate who used to follow this general’s
father, who was a notorious pirate in Taiwan Strait, told him, cross the black
creek, that is how they called the Strait then, there is a big island and now
is controlled by red hair devils, (yes, that is how they called Dutch). If defeat them, we will create our own kingdom. Also, those barbarians don’t have
fleets to cross the black creek that can keep our kingdom peacefully.
The general took his suggestion and used his fleets to sneak attack Dutch, then
won. By this victory, this general became a few well-known Chinese person to
western world. You can even find his “English name” in Wikipedia. (you can
search “Koxinga” 國姓爺)
After taking Taiwan into his territory,
Koxinga started to build some systems to complete his kingdom. He recruited
lots of people from his hometown in China to cultivate the farm. He set up
schools and exam for education and built several cities. This is the first time
Taiwan into civilization. However, his kingdom lasts only 20s years, the
barbarians which then was called Ching Empire, sent fleets defeat them. Taiwan
is back to China.
When Ching conquered Taiwan, there was a
debate, should we take Taiwan into our territory or simply abandon it? You know
that is great mainland era, nobody cares about island and ocean. In the
beginning, the emperor inclined to give up, however, a minister said, if we
give up, those rebels and pirates will gather in this island again, then we have to repeatly send troop for war . The emperor took his advice but with a
brilliant way. They didn’t give up Taiwan, however, they didn’t allow
mainlanders moving to Taiwan only islanders can move to China. They closed the
island. Then, Taiwan passed about 200 years in this way. During that period,
even with the bar, lots of mainlanders, especially from Fujiang, the province
just in the opposite of Taiwan Strait, secretly move to Taiwan. Because Fujiang
is hilly hard to farm but Taiwan west side is plain and with good weather to
harvest 2-3 times per year.
In the 18th~19th
century, by the Industrial Revolution, the West advances the East. European and
US occupied lots colonies all over the world. In Asia, Japan found himself must
change or die so they followed all western way as you see in the movie, “Last
Samurai”. Anyway, after the change, Japan became one of the new power in Asia
and they were eager to have their own colony as well. Taiwan is their 1st
target. At that time, the China government realized the importance of Taiwan,
then to upgrade Taiwan as province and started to construct Taiwan. The funny
thing is, on that time China wanted to modernize as well . However the conservative
power was so strong. People thought the railroad will ruin the Fonshui (風水), the light in electric pole will absorb your soul…something like
that. So Chinese were all against those modern technologies. But, not in Taiwan.
So, China’s first railroad, first electricity wire, pole..are all in Taiwan.
Eventually, Japan and China had a war. Japan
defeated China. In the treaty, China cut Taiwan to Japan. So Taiwan became
Japan’s colony and the first colony. Japan controls Taiwan for 50 years and
brought Taiwan lots of modernizations. New cities, airports, harbors, watering
systems…That is also why many elderly people in Taiwan can speak fluent
Japanese. In Asia, most countries don’t like Japan mainly because of the 2nd
world war history but Taiwan is a few, actually I may say the only one country
which is very close and friendly to Japan.
And then, you know, 2nd world
war happens. Japan joined Axis with German and Italy. China with US, UK and
Russia formed Allies. At the end, Allies won, so Japan has to return Taiwan to
China in year 1945. Then Taiwan is back to China again. However, after the
world war, China started its civil war. Pretty much like East and West German
or North and South Korea, China divided into two camps: Communist and
Democracy. At the end, Communist won, the loser side led the troop and
followers to Taiwan. That is why in many official sign or documents, you will
see Republic of China here, that is our official country name and the China you are familiar is called People’s
Republic of China.
Even though lots of controversies in
politics, like should we sticks to China or just simply Taiwan,
Or, you may hear a lot like China thinks Taiwan is part of China but many
Taiwanese think we are not Chinese. Anyway, in 1949 the great immigration from
China, roughly 5 million people, did bring highly diversity to this island.
Therefore, even though Taiwan is pretty much like Connecticut size, however, it
gathers all province people from China. Also all kinds of food, even pretty
girls. So, that is modern Taiwan, a mixture of Chinese, Japanese even American
culture.
以上是當天約略的歷史簡介. 前面很詳細後面很簡略, 倒不是怕什麼課綱爭議, 而是小朋友本來就對這種海盗、野蠻人比較有興趣. 後面則是因為時間不夠講得急促一點.
─西元1624年 (這是另一篇我之前寫過台灣歷史的文章), 有興趣的人可以看看
最後附上其中一位拍製的影片
https://www.facebook.com/caitlin.noelle.valentine.mccormick/videos/861388537288941/?pnref=story
說真的, 她並沒有去多少地方 但是拍出來的影片很有趣. 我覺得觀光局可以考慮多找這些素人 拍一些從外國人不同角度看台灣.
最後附上其中一位拍製的影片
https://www.facebook.com/caitlin.noelle.valentine.mccormick/videos/861388537288941/?pnref=story
說真的, 她並沒有去多少地方 但是拍出來的影片很有趣. 我覺得觀光局可以考慮多找這些素人 拍一些從外國人不同角度看台灣.
