View allAll Photos Tagged arisan
This one is heavily influenced by my recent obsession with the short film, Black Angel. Only four more new pieces to share from Árísan before releasing my short film, Hælestre. It's been an interesting experience to work on all of these images behind the scenes, saving them up for my recent solo show, and now unleashing them in a tidal wave of new work. Hope you've been enjoying the ride! =)
Final image share from my solo exhibition at Axis in Seattle. This one pertains directly to my short film which goes by the same title. Filming was such a rewarding, challenging, and entirely new experience. Definitely excited to do more of it.
Some of my original works from the solo are still available, so if you're interested in any of the pieces from my series, Árísan, please feel free to send me an e-mail at kindra.nikole@gmail.com. Each piece is printed on archival giclee paper, mounted to wood panel, and glazed with lustrous resin. I can send along detail shots of the physical pieces upon request.
I'm working hard to sell off the originals from the show (all of which are one of a kind and not to be reproduced again!), and am planning a timed print release soon, all in the hopes of saving up enough funds to make a trip to Iceland in June. Should I meet my goal to travel there, I've got some really fun, exciting projects planned! <3
Full image of my rendition of the lady of the lake, Nimiane, emerging from the water with Excalibur. This was the first image I shot for my new series, Árísan, and is my personal favorite. I've been wanting to capture it for at least two years now and am so happy to have it out of my head and into a tangible form finally.
This piece is currently on view as part of my solo exhibition at Axis in Seattle, sized at 36x24", hand embellished with acrylics, mounted to wood panel, and resin glazed. It was so surreal to see my work so large in person and to work on tiny embellishments on such a massive piece! I felt an even deeper connection with the image, working with it in an organic state like this. Nimiane was truly a labor of love.
I'll also be releasing my short film, Hælestre, this week late Thursday night/Friday morning, so stay tuned for that!
他的學名和英文俗名還真的都有阿里山字樣~~
Arisan is a famous mountain sight-seeing spot in Taiwan. However, this species is widely distributed in southern Asia.
This photo is taken in Taiwan.
[One of my new pieces from Árísan, a series exploring Arthurian myth through a lens into a world where women are the protectors and knights of the land.
I've been extra quiet of late as I've worked to complete this series all at once while completing my first film, which will be released later next week! This piece features the beautiful Meredith Adelaide, who is always willing to go the extra mile to ensure we capture the strongest image we're able to.
Look forward to many more images being trickled out over the month from this series, as well as my new film, Hælestre. <3]
[A depiction inspired by the romantic Arthurian knight, Lancelot. Shot up in Canada with Alicia fully armored and dripping wet from fresh snowfall. Her resolve for creating art continually impresses me, and I'm so thankful to have found a kindred creative spirit and friend.
I've decided to share each of my new pieces for Árísan, after which I'll release my film, Hælestre, online. Following the release of all my new images and the film, I'll also be doing a *timed* editioned release of prints from the series, so watch for that! I haven't offered prints in a very long time, and all proceeds will go toward helping me get to Iceland this coming summer, for further creative pursuits.]
Model: SuzAnne Helen Steben
Assist: Fox Chalker
[Another new image from my series, Árísan. We wandered out to the middle of a field off the side of a road for this one, on a brisk day with the wind blowing and shifting the clouds and weather patterns rapidly.]
Model: Sarah Hiraki
Yet another piece for my Árísan series, though I had so much fun creating this series that I fully intend to create more images for it.The title is Middle English for "death mist."
Because I shot all of the pieces for this over the course of a few months and then spent a month editing them all at once, I was able to compose multiple separate pieces in a way in which they complimented one another. This piece complimenting my previous post, "Of Virtue," and the next image I'll be posting is the third in this triptych I've created. Certainly a new approach to my work that I really enjoyed!
Last Saturday, it was the Day of Building and Construction in The Netherlands. Various construction sites are open to the public and construction workers explain what they are doing.
I went together with Ari to the Central Station in Amsterdam, to see the work on the new car tunnel, bicycle tunnel, and north-south metro track. Very impressive.
I took this picture in the bicycle tunnel, which is nearly finished. It has beautiful blue tile walls, based on a 17th century painting by Cornelis Bouwmeester, and great lighting, both from below and from above.
52 weeks of 2014 - Week 21 - Blurry
EXPLORE (25-05-2014)
Photo Copyright 2012, dynamo.photography.
All rights reserved, no use without license
++++++++ from wikipedia.org ++++++++
The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
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The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
Thomas Chatterton Sitting After Taking Arsenic.
(Linoleum Cut).
Gloue at thee vial that thou has just emptied sauter'd tears therein,
aboue thee stars that twinkle for thee last shine,
now'st thou shall be anighst along with thee words written as Rowley 'ere,
from faetus till now, what has't thou learn'st in thy waing semestre hours ov'rpass'd?
Wishing thou was moore œconomicall with thee soul,
as thee pen that slides ne'er nighe agayne,
thee black kennst call'st a gentle tunne to the body, that be tift'd for thou,
acomen in without a brighte view darken'd,
twytte at thou self ,knowing that help isnt near ner hecket swythyn,
baleful are the ways of a forletten poet, without e'en a crust of bread nor a fetive penny to spend,
sabalus forreying pull was a deceitful whisper heard misunderstood forstraughteyng ahh,
ishad ethie promises what didst thou think,hap's not at all,
'tis a twixt of a problem estroughted hence forth forming a glomb,
does rede arisan once the toll rings louder that thee chelandrees beufan?
Many think, 'tis really know, what a forspillan , cause you nete to know not,
to tak'st onweg thee thing that can't be return'd latte,
thee poyntelle, the vita, thee very thing that brings joy along with sadness in this vie ,
to mak'st a poet aushalten through thou hard shipp's aghast of caytysnede leven,
'O what things thou could of wroten off,'tis loss of tongue as the quill runn'th emt'd,
spoken nought no moore words, schweigend night,
twill dries upp'd for thee blak'd goose nyghte,
lost dreams and visions of a life to thee fullest life be lost indeed,
but a ugsomme drift near,
'tis boat hits thee agreeme shores to snuff out,
does't thou still smaken thy bestoikerre piss?
That pass'd as wine e'erlasting?
upswalynge pain at thy loss of youre nestl'd self,
too late to turn back thee olyphauntes that pound underfoot,
unmerciful at youre center self,
a quick to thy wick which ne'er pours,
but burns with daygnous lyvelyhode,
borne out with aeterne weere,
goodnight swotie poet,
thee welkynne scalle kiss thous dolce cheeks,
well praeter thee half moons wynn!
Steve.D.Hammond.
A twist to an Explore picture of Arisan; see the link below in the first comment.
Hé, Ari: IKEA colours!
ODC - Theme (12-09-2011): Attempt to replicate something that has been on ODC explore
Photo Copyright 2012, dynamo.photography.
All rights reserved, no use without license
++++++++ from wikipedia.org ++++++++
The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
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The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
Last night, I visited the Amsterdam Light Festival, together with Monique and Ari. The weather conditions were not ideal, but we managed to visit some of the light installations through wind and rain.
This installation consists of many lamps donated by citizens of Amsterdam to symbolize that people form the heart beat of the city. Together, all 1100 lamps write the title of the installation: 'We light Amsterdam'.
ODC - Theme (25-12-2013): Too much
Photo Copyright 2012, dynamo.photography.
All rights reserved, no use without license
++++++++ from wikipedia.org ++++++++
The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
Meeting this kind of small size butterfly in the forest needs great sight. Unfortunately I am wearing glasses without great sight. I knew where was this little butterfly as the other butterfly lovers told me. It seems to enjoy the sunlight from the top of tree.
我覺得所有蝴蝶中，最難拍的，是一些珍稀品種的小灰蝶，他們數量稀少、尺寸很小，要發現他們，還真是眼力大考驗，可惜我是個大近視，這隻「阿里山鐵灰蝶」是旁邊蝶友發現的，我只是順著叫聲一起拍。
PS. 標題出自明代，王直的「同鄒侍講諸公游長春宮故址（四首）」。
~碧綠神木, 太魯閣國家公園, 台灣
Taroko National Park, Taiwan
- ISO 1600, F5.6, 1/4000 sec, 100mm
- Canon 5D MarkIII with EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro lens
- Shot @ 8.36am
In the U.S., we celebrate Memorial Day to honor veterans, past and present, who gave their time and sometimes their lives to protect those of us who enjoy freedom. It seems that the end of May is a most appropriate time to select for such remembrance. In most parts of the world, the climate has become mild and days are beautiful. As I look out upon lush vegetation and sunny blue skies, I can understand why it's a perfect time to recall those who gave of their time and lives. Even if there was not a memorial day of remembrance at the end of May, my thoughts would go out, on days like this, to those who have lost their lives in war. On beautiful sunny days, like these, I can feel the longing of not being able to witness such beauty any longer. I sense just how lucky I am to be free, enjoying the sunshine and beautiful skies, family and friends. No matter what nation soldiers hail from, the lives they gave up are equally precious. Those who knew and loved them are equally sad to know how much they gave and how so many lives have been sadly cut short.
Here is my brief tribute to three of my own relatives who lost their lives in war:
Thomas Armstrong, Sapper with the Royal Engineers, died in one of the earliest aerial bombardments of WWI, in England. He left a wife and five children.
SSgt. George Bennett, died when his B-26 Marauder crashed in England during WWII.
Chief Pharmacists Mate, Arthur Diaz, served aboard the USS Seadragon in WWII. Wounded in an attack he was later taken prisoner in the Philippines. He died as a POW aboard the infamous hellship, Arisan Maru, when it was sunk by a U.S submarine.
Attending concerts is one of my favorite pastimes. Just sit back and watch and listen to the fantastic performances of the musician artists. Forget all the business of the day, and get carried away into the worlds created by the composer and their interpreters (musicians).
Unfortunately this pastime is more and more becoming a LUXURY, thanks to the current government that clearly doesn't care for culture, lowers subsidies for the orchestras, and raises taxes on concert tickets.
The photo shows the organ in "De Doelen" concert hall in Rotterdam, which was renovated a few years ago. Last year, I took this photo showing a larger view of the hall.
ODC Group 2
7 Oct 2011: LUXURY
アリサンバラン ‘ドンプ・ダズラー’
(旧名：アリサンバラン ‘BSWJ377’)
(中華名：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘東圃微笑’)
(老字號：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘BSWJ377’)
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘Dungpu Dazzler’
This name is accepted. 03/14, 2022.
-------------------------------------------------
Family: Asparagaceae (APG IV)
-------------------------------------------------
Authors:
Bunzô Hayata (1874-1934)
-------------------------------------------------
Published In:
Icones plantarum formosanarum nec non et contributiones ad floram formosanam. 2: 145–146. 1912. (Icon. Pl. Formosan.)
Name publication detail
-------------------------------------------------
Type-Protolog
Locality:China: Taiwan: Arisan, Jan. 1912
Collector and Number:B. Hayata & S. Sasaki s.n.
Institutions(s):HT: TI
-------------------------------------------------
Distribution:C. & S. Taiwan
38 TAI
Lifeform:Hemicr. or rhizome geophyte
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
-------------------------------------------------
Homotypic Names:
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 5: 40 (2000).
-------------------------------------------------
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
-------------------------------------------------
Synonyms :
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, 2000 ‘BSWJ377’
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘BSWJ377’
-------------------------------------------------
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
-------------------------------------------------
Both countries of origin are Dongpu / Taiwan.
This plants comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. Sometimes see, powerful adaptation in this plant sticking growing to a steep slope and a cliff. As for this plants, the color of a flower will become a peach color if temperature increases in the flowering period suddenly. Conversely, a fall of temperature will fix the color of a flower to sour green.
本個体の原産地は台灣の東圃である。
この植物は、排水よく森林土壌に密なコロニーを形成しており、時には、この植物の強力な適応力は急斜面や垂直な崖に着生して成長している場合もしばしばある。 この植物は、温度の上昇で花の色がクリーミーな桃色になるが、逆に、低温下での開花はサワー・グリーンの花の色になる。
Detailed Description
This Crug Farm collection comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. The dark evergreen leaves, highlighted with a few small yellow spots, reach 40" tall x 3" wide. This is certainly the tallest cast iron plant we have grown to date, but one that you will certainly grow for the showy flowers. The stunning 2" creamy yellow flowers with peach centers magically appear en masse during early March atop the soil surface. They resemble plates of sauteed starfish among the base of the leaves. fascinating. At 8 degrees F, the old foliage burned off, but the plants regrew nicely in spring.
詳細な説明
このクラッグ・ファーム・コレクションは、水はけの良い森林土壌の緻密なコロニーを形成し、台灣の東圃から来ました。いくつかの小さな黄色の斑点で強調表示される、暗い常緑の葉は、葉の長さが40cm程度、葉幅は8cmくらいになります。我々はこれまでに成長している植物が、あなたを確かに派手な花のために育成する事に魅了すると思うでしょう。見事な5cmほどのピーチセンターとクリーミーイエローの花が魔法のように土壌表面の上に3月上旬の間に一斉に開花します。冬場-10度Ｃ程度だと古い葉は枯死しますが、植物は春にきれいによみがえります。
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_Delights_Nursery
SONY α7R (ILCE-7R)
Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T＊ 100mm F2.8
アリサンバラン ‘ドンプ・ダズラー’
(旧名：アリサンバラン ‘BSWJ377’)
(中華名：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘東圃微笑’)
(老字號：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘BSWJ377’)
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘Dungpu Dazzler’
This name is accepted. 03/14, 2022.
-------------------------------------------------
Family: Asparagaceae (APG IV)
-------------------------------------------------
Authors:
Bunzô Hayata (1874-1934)
-------------------------------------------------
Published In:
Icones plantarum formosanarum nec non et contributiones ad floram formosanam. 2: 145–146. 1912. (Icon. Pl. Formosan.)
Name publication detail
-------------------------------------------------
Type-Protolog
Locality:China: Taiwan: Arisan, Jan. 1912
Collector and Number:B. Hayata & S. Sasaki s.n.
Institutions(s):HT: TI
-------------------------------------------------
Distribution:C. & S. Taiwan
38 TAI
Lifeform:Hemicr. or rhizome geophyte
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
-------------------------------------------------
Homotypic Names:
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 5: 40 (2000).
-------------------------------------------------
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
-------------------------------------------------
Synonyms :
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, 2000 ‘BSWJ377’
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘BSWJ377’
-------------------------------------------------
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
-------------------------------------------------
Both countries of origin are Dongpu / Taiwan.
This plants comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. Sometimes see, powerful adaptation in this plant sticking growing to a steep slope and a cliff. As for this plants, the color of a flower will become a peach color if temperature increases in the flowering period suddenly. Conversely, a fall of temperature will fix the color of a flower to sour green.
本個体の原産地は台灣の東圃である。
この植物は、排水よく森林土壌に密なコロニーを形成しており、時には、この植物の強力な適応力は急斜面や垂直な崖に着生して成長している場合もしばしばある。 この植物は、温度の上昇で花の色がクリーミーな桃色になるが、逆に、低温下での開花はサワー・グリーンの花の色になる。
Detailed Description
This Crug Farm collection comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. The dark evergreen leaves, highlighted with a few small yellow spots, reach 40" tall x 3" wide. This is certainly the tallest cast iron plant we have grown to date, but one that you will certainly grow for the showy flowers. The stunning 2" creamy yellow flowers with peach centers magically appear en masse during early March atop the soil surface. They resemble plates of sauteed starfish among the base of the leaves. fascinating. At 8 degrees F, the old foliage burned off, but the plants regrew nicely in spring.
詳細な説明
このクラッグ・ファーム・コレクションは、水はけの良い森林土壌の緻密なコロニーを形成し、台灣の東圃から来ました。いくつかの小さな黄色の斑点で強調表示される、暗い常緑の葉は、葉の長さが40cm程度、葉幅は8cmくらいになります。我々はこれまでに成長している植物が、あなたを確かに派手な花のために育成する事に魅了すると思うでしょう。見事な5cmほどのピーチセンターとクリーミーイエローの花が魔法のように土壌表面の上に3月上旬の間に一斉に開花します。冬場-10度Ｃ程度だと古い葉は枯死しますが、植物は春にきれいによみがえります。
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_Delights_Nursery
SONY α7R (ILCE-7R)
Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T＊ 100mm F2.8
Tonight, I brought a visit to China Light Rotterdam, together with Ari-san and another friend. According to the website: In a park near the Euromast in Rotterdam, over 40 Chinese artists have built the biggest Chinese light spectacle of Europe. Among enchanting light objects of fairy-tale characters, flowers, animals and beautiful buildings, you'll almost feel you're in the magical world of China.
And it was true. It was beautiful and magical, especially when it became dark. Here you see The Netherlands according to the Chinese: windmill, cottages, tulips, only the wooden shoes were missing.
ODC - Theme (02-02-2013): Pink
@kinalJKT48 : ibuibu rumpi. ngomongin arisan bagusnya tanggal berapa. yang penting #k3bahagiaandepi 💀 t.co/094nZuDn6Y (via Twitter)
I've been challenged by my friend Brian (www.flickr.com/photos/bgdlynch/) to post a B&W photo each day for 5 days and in turn to nominate another person each day to do the same! This is my 3rd day and today I nominate my good contact and friend Ari (www.flickr.com/photos/arisan/).
Together with three photo friends (Ari, Monique and Jacky), I visited the retrospective exhibition featuring the work of the female street photographer Vivian Maier (New York, 1926 - 2009) in Foam, the photography museum of Amsterdam. Her impressive oeuvre was only discovered at the end of her life - and then immediately caused a worldwide sensation. The picture in the background is a selfie of her, a reflection in a shop window.
B&W Challenge - Day 3
ODC - Theme (30-12-2014): In the middle
This is a retry of the shot I took 2 days ago, with a better background and natural lighting. I took this one on my parents' balcony. Hope you also like it better than the previous one.
You may notice Baby Tigger seems to have grown a lot. But that's because the scale doesn't start at 0, which is sneakily obscured by Tigger's left foot.
ODT: Scale
Last year at the airport I ordered a kids meal, because I wasn't that hungry. It came with this (candy-filled) propeller plane. If you pull the rope and put the plane down somewhere, it will go quite far (a few meters).
Three years ago, Simone O. from New York sent me this small pig, which went on a world tour. Here is the set of the pictures I took back then.
Today it was time to put pig on the plane for the challenge set by "52 weeks of 2015". The subject was panning / motion blur. This photo has both. The propeller is blurred due to its rotational motion, and I took the shot while panning my camera. To make the background a bit more interesting, I used a row of DVD boxes.
52 weeks of 2015, Week 3: Panning / motion blur
English: Creeping Fig, Climbing Fig, Creeping Rubber Plant, Fig Ivy (Philippines, USA), Tropical Ivy (Sri Lanka), Figvine (antiquated?)
Aboriginal Languages of Taiwan: Sechiya (Rinkiho), Sikkikeiyaguzyo (Arisan-bansha). Note: All these names come from the remote and mountainous Alishan region (older names Arisan, then Alisan) and were recorded in a Japanese book (written in English) from 1927. The words in parenthesis are localities where the names where recorded. It is tempting to ascribe the names to the different dialects and languages of the Tsou peoples, but it is only safe to do so for the last name because 'Arisan-bansha' means 'Arisan barbarian tribe' in Japanese (see 蛮社). Rinkiho was a small logging village where camphor oil was produced, it is unclear what language the people there spoke.
Burmese: ? pronounced 'kyauk kat nyaung nwe'
Czech: Fíkus Plazivý
Chinese: 薜荔, pronounced 'bi li', or ? pronounced 'mu-lien'. F. pumila var. pumila is also known as 薜荔, but also as 原变种, pronounced 'yuan bian zhong'. F. pumila var. awkeotsang is known as 爱玉子, written 愛玉子 in Taiwan, pronounced 'ai yu zi' (='jelly seed', literally 'love jade seed/child', see Chinese beliefs/superstitions regarding human sperm and kidneys below). Other names are 木蓮 (1670, Chinese manuscript, now is name for Manglietia trees), 石壁蓮 (= means 'climbing lotus'), 風不動 (= 'unmoved by wind', due to the leaves clinging so close to the substrate on which it clings), 木瓜藤 (= 'papaya vine'), 木饅頭 (= 'wood bread'), 壁石虎 (= 'wall stone tiger'), 鬼饅頭 (= 'ghost bread'), 文頭郎.
---Hokkien (Taiwanese): The plant, seeds and jelly produced from them of F. pumila var. awkeotsang is known as 'ò-giô' in pe̍h-ōe-jī romanisation. The names 'ai-yu-tse' [modern pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography] and 'aw-keo-tsang' [1870s-1910s] are pe̍h-ōe-jī romanisations of 愛玉子, but are unpopular amongst Taiwanese at present. Also 'chi-ipō' (from Kagi-sankyaku = Chiayi City [1927, Japanese book, probably pe̍h-ōe-jī]). The modern name 'ò-giô' (earliest attestation I have found is 'ok-gue' [1896, USA book, 1904, Japanese journal]) has quite convincingly been shown to be a loanword from Spanish or Portuguese 'figo' via Japanese, and probably became current with the language reforms during the later half of the period the island was part of the Japanese empire [1900-1945]. The 'aw-keo-tsang' pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography of Hokkien can be traced to the Presbyterian missionaries which came to Taiwan after the Treaty of Tien-tsin (now spelled Tianjin) in 1858 -the orthography (spelling) of the [ts] phoneme as 'ts' instead of 'ch' can be used to trace the originator, most probably .... The nominate form, var. pumila, is known by the (Mandarin?) name 薜荔.
Danish: Hænge-Figen
Dutch: Klimvijg
Finnish: Kääpiököynnösviikuna
French: Figuier Rampant, Figuier Nain Rampant
German: Kletter-Feige, Kletterfeige, Kletter-Ficus
Indonesian: Daun Dolar
Italian: Fico tappezzante, Fico rampicante
Japanese: オオイタビ, pronounced 'oo-itabi', the awkeotsang variety is known as カンテンイタビ
Korean: 왕모람 (피커스푸밀라)
Lithuanian: Smulkusis Fikusas; Smulkieji Fikusai
Polish: Figowiec Pnący
Portuguese: Hera, Figueira-trepadeira, Unha-de-gato (this last name is more commonly used for Uncaria tomentosa)
---Brazilian Portuguese: Herinha, Falsa-hera, Hera-miúda
Russian: Фикус Крохотный
Serbian: Пузајући Фикус pronounced 'puzajući fikus', Пењући Фикус pronounced 'penjući fikus'
Spanish: Higuera Trepadora, Ficus de China, Ficus Enano, Ficus Pumila, Ficus Rastrero, Ficus Tapizante, Ficus Trepador, Ficus Enano, Uña de Gato (Colombia), Uñita (Colombia), Yedro (Colombia)
Swedish: Klätterfikus
Thai: ตีนตุ๊กแก (= means 'velcro'), มะเดื่อเถา, ไทรเถา, ไทรตีนตุ๊กแก (= means 'velcro banyan')
Turkish: Duvar Sarmaşığı, Duvar Sarma
Urdu: چڑی پنجہ
Vietnamese: Cây Trâu Cổ, Trâu Cổ, Cây Xộp, Vày Ốc, Cơm Lênh, Bị Lệ, Mộc Liên, Sung Thằn Lằn, Mác Púp (Tày)
In Taiwan (愛玉子 (pronounced 'aiyuzi'), 愛玉冰 (pronounced 'àiyù bīng'), 愛玉凍 (pronounced 'àiyù dòng'), in modern Hokkien 'ò-giô', commonly translated as 'aiyu jelly' in English) and Singapore (文頭雪 (pronounced 'wéntóu xǔe') or 'ice jelly') a jelly is made from the fruit of F. pumila var. awkeotsang, or more specifically, from the layer of pectin coating the surface of the seeds and forming the receptacle attaching them to the syconium.
Actually many species of plants have a layer of pectin surrounding the seeds; this has multiple functions; because it is indigestible to most animals, including insects (some species have bacteria or yeasts in their gut which can break it down), seminivory is discouraged, furthermore the layer retains moisture which can be important in environments which experience rapid evaporation, and lastly the sticky layer helps attaching the seeds to steeper surfaces as often found in epiphytic or lithophytic circumstances.
An American blog which often whines about the quality of information which can be found on internet claims the fruit can be squeezed and the juice can be made into aiyu jelly -this is nonsense. Outside of East Asia fruits rarely ripen, and furthermore due to the fact that the specific fig wasp needed to pollinate the flowers, few to no seeds are produced and thus the pectin content will be negligible. Unripe fruit are inedible and mildly poisonous (primarily due to the latex content), but ripe fruit are used in a variety of traditional Chinese folk medicines, such as cooked with front pig feet to promote lactation (=a galactagogue) or boiled in lots of sugar to promote intercourse by preventing masturbation (confusing, yes, but according to TCM masturbation (euphemised as 'spermatorrhea') is a disease that weakens the kidneys because sperm and all other bodily fluids are produced by the kidneys using a special kidney energy, which can eventually be exhausted, causing death. The belief in efficacy is probably because the seeds congeal fluid and the achenes and galls within the fig look somewhat kidney-like).
Traditionally, only var. awkeotsang is used, as this has larger fruit with thinner flesh and vastly more seeds, but modern Taiwanese producers of commercial jelly use both varieties. A large amount of sugar is added, about 50% by weight. The seeds must be filtered out and must not be broken open (because they are bitter and distasteful, but also because they contain enzymes which can break down the pectin).
The resulting jelly looks similar to American jello, but is chemically and thus nutritionally very different: in aiyu jelly the gelling agent is pectin, an indigestible polysaccharide, whereas jello uses gelatin, a protein-based substance derived from collagen by boiling the tendons and intestines of animals, thus digestible and containing (primarily certain) amino-acids. Because aiyu jelly is basically just pectin with sugar, it is easy to make using other ingredients, for example with commercial pectin powders or by using plants with similarly high pectin contents by extracting it from the insides of the peels of citrus fruits or unripe blackberries using a hot, weak acid (such as citric). In content aiyu jelly is almost identical to modern European jam/marmalade (jelly in the USA), but contains less sugar, approximately half to a quarter as much depending on the jam, and less nutrients and flavours.
Distribution: Native to south China (Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, southern Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang), Taiwan, Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands, Shikoku), Vietnam.
A garden escape in Nepal, New Zealand, Western Australia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas; and possibly rarely in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Note that it has not actually been naturalized anywhere, sexual reproduction in this (and other Ficus species) requires the presence of a specific pollinator wasp, which has not been found outside it's native range (yet). This means that outside of East Asia, fruits rarely ripen, seeds are not set, and development is aborted before ripening. The fruits usually dry up on the vine.
The distribution in Thailand and the Philippines, whether native or naturalized, is unclear to me at this moment. A plant labelled as such is listed for the Philippines on Wikipedia, but the picture is actually of F. drupacea.
Wow, hard to imagine this plant was so small less than a year ago. It is quite fast-growing!
Like many climbing plants in diverse families (Cornaceae, Araliaceae, Araceae, Anacardiaceae, but not Vitaceae) this species has two distinct phases of growth; it first grows as a small-leaved, juvenile climbing form, which does not flower or bear fruit: after a having reached a particular height or size, it develops thicker, horizontal, non-climbing branches with larger leaves, which grow spotted pear-sized and -shaped fruit, which when mature become dark purple and loose the spots.
See the fruit here: www.figweb.org/Ficus/Subgenus_Synoecia/Section_Rhizocladu...
A nicely designed bracelet, with a very unique band. The distinctive silver links taper out from the centerpiece, which contains various vintage watch gears, and a silver leaf charm encased in a round, galss casing.
アリサンバラン ‘ドンプ・ダズラー’
(旧名：アリサンバラン ‘BSWJ377’)
(中華名：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘東圃微笑’)
(老字號：薄叶蜘蛛抱蛋 ‘BSWJ377’)
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘Dungpu Dazzler’
This name is accepted. 03/14, 2022.
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Family: Asparagaceae (APG IV)
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Authors:
Bunzô Hayata (1874-1934)
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Published In:
Icones plantarum formosanarum nec non et contributiones ad floram formosanam. 2: 145–146. 1912. (Icon. Pl. Formosan.)
Name publication detail
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Type-Protolog
Locality:China: Taiwan: Arisan, Jan. 1912
Collector and Number:B. Hayata & S. Sasaki s.n.
Institutions(s):HT: TI
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Distribution:C. & S. Taiwan
38 TAI
Lifeform:Hemicr. or rhizome geophyte
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
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Homotypic Names:
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 5: 40 (2000).
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Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
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Synonyms :
Aspidistra elatior Blume var. attenuata (Hayata) S.S.Ying, 2000 ‘BSWJ377’
Aspidistra attenuata Hayata, 1912 ‘BSWJ377’
-------------------------------------------------
Original Compiler:R.Govaerts
This name is not Accepted by:
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [as Aspidistra elatior var. attenuata]
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Both countries of origin are Dongpu / Taiwan.
This plants comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. Sometimes see, powerful adaptation in this plant sticking growing to a steep slope and a cliff. As for this plants, the color of a flower will become a peach color if temperature increases in the flowering period suddenly. Conversely, a fall of temperature will fix the color of a flower to sour green.
本個体の原産地は台灣の東圃である。
この植物は、排水よく森林土壌に密なコロニーを形成しており、時には、この植物の強力な適応力は急斜面や垂直な崖に着生して成長している場合もしばしばある。 この植物は、温度の上昇で花の色がクリーミーな桃色になるが、逆に、低温下での開花はサワー・グリーンの花の色になる。
Detailed Description
This Crug Farm collection comes from Dongpu, Taiwan, where it forms dense colonies in the well-drained forest soil. The dark evergreen leaves, highlighted with a few small yellow spots, reach 40" tall x 3" wide. This is certainly the tallest cast iron plant we have grown to date, but one that you will certainly grow for the showy flowers. The stunning 2" creamy yellow flowers with peach centers magically appear en masse during early March atop the soil surface. They resemble plates of sauteed starfish among the base of the leaves. fascinating. At 8 degrees F, the old foliage burned off, but the plants regrew nicely in spring.
詳細な説明
このクラッグ・ファーム・コレクションは、水はけの良い森林土壌の緻密なコロニーを形成し、台灣の東圃から来ました。いくつかの小さな黄色の斑点で強調表示される、暗い常緑の葉は、葉の長さが40cm程度、葉幅は8cmくらいになります。我々はこれまでに成長している植物が、あなたを確かに派手な花のために育成する事に魅了すると思うでしょう。見事な5cmほどのピーチセンターとクリーミーイエローの花が魔法のように土壌表面の上に3月上旬の間に一斉に開花します。冬場-10度Ｃ程度だと古い葉は枯死しますが、植物は春にきれいによみがえります。
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_Delights_Nursery
SONY α7R (ILCE-7R)
Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T＊ 100mm F2.8
Bunga Cantik di Tengah Padang Rumput
Siapa di antara anda yang belum pernah mendengar pepatah yang mengatakan “Tak kenal maka tak cinta?”. Tentu semuanya sudah pernah mendengarnya, baik pada waktu pelajaran peribahasa di Mata Ajaran Bahasa Indonesia atau dalam pergaulan sehari-hari karena pepatah ini kerap kali digunakan orang. Sekarang, malah ada sedikit perubahan dan penambahan kata dalam pepatah tersebut. Yaitu menjadi "Tak Kenal Maka TaÂ’aruf."
Berbedakah keduanya ?
Dari kedua kalimat tersebut, sebenarnya ada perbedaan arti meski hanya sedikit dan tipis sekali. Taruh sebuah permisalan. Jika anda bertemu dengan seseorang yang tidak anda kenal sama sekali, tentu anda ingin mengenalnya lebih jauh dan keinginan untuk mengenalnya itu begitu kuat muncul dalam diri anda. Anda ingin tahu siapa namanya, dimana dia tinggal, apa kegiatannya dan segala sesuatu yang menyelingkupi kehidupan teman baru anda itu. Dalam kondisi seperti ini maka pepatah ‘yang baru’ akan diterapkan, “Tak Kenal Maka TaÂ’aruf.”
Tahukah anda bahwa sebenarnya dalam proses perkenalan itu telah terjadi sebuah proses lain yang juga berkembang dalam diri kita. Yaitu sebuah proses pemilahan kelompok teman. Pada waktu kita mulai melancarkan rangkaian pertanyaan padanya tanpa kita sadari yang kita cari adalah kesamaan dan kesesuaian dalam beberapa hal yang sekiranya akan menjadi perekat perkenalan tersebut.
“Eh.. suka baca buku nggak ?” atau “Oh, kamu tinggal disana yah ? Hmm, aku punya teman di sana, kenal sama A nggak yah, dia tinggal di blok Z.”
Proses perekat hubungan inilah pada banyak orang diartikan sebagai sebuah proses “Tak Kenal maka Tak Cinta.”. Tidak ada yang menyadari bahwa sebenarnya tidak melulu arti pemahaman sebuah perkenalan akan berakhir dengan sesuatu yang manis seperti yang diharapkan dalam pepatah tersebut. Ada kalanya, setelah sebuah perkenalan terjadi, lalu pengenalan diri masing-masing berlanjut pada hal yang lebih jauh, sebuah hubungan ‘perkenalan’ bisa jadi ikut berakhir pula seiring dengan perpisahan yang terjadi dalam sebuah pertemuan. Mengapa hal ini bisa terjadi?
Sudah menjadi sebuah kebutuhan manusia untuk dapat memperoleh kepercayaan dan rasa aman dalam dirinya. Inilah yang terjadi dalam proses pemilahan kelompok teman yang baru kita kenal. Yup. Ada sebuah proses lain dalam sebuah perkenalan yang tanpa kita sadari telah menggiring kita untuk melakukan sebuah pemilahan yang sangat bersifat subjektif karena kebutuhan kita akan rasa percaya dan dan rasa aman tersebut.
Tanpa kita sadari kita mulai melakukan pemilahan dan pencarian data apakah dia cukup bermanfaat sebagai seorang teman ataukah tidak, ada sebuah istilah yang mungkin lebih pas tapi konotasinya pada beberapa orang mungkin menyakitkan telinga yang sensitif, yaitu “seberapa pantas orang yang baru anda kenal itu bisa menjadi teman anda”.
“Seberapa pantas…”, terdengar sangat arogan dan tidak bersahabat yah? Tapi meski terdengar sangat tidak sopan, memang itulah yang sesungguhnya terjadi dalam sebuah proses perkenalan. Dalam alam pikiran sederhana, bagaimana mungkin kita akan bisa meletakkan rasa percaya kita pada seseorang yang tidak kita kenal? Dalam alam pikiran sederhana, bagaimana mungkin kita akan merasa aman pada seseorang yang tidak kita kenal? Sekali lagi, dalam alam pikiran sederhana, bagaimana mungkin kita akan memberikan rasa sayang, rasa cinta kita pada seseorang yang tidak kita kenal. Bukankah “Tak kenal maka Tak Cinta ?”
Dan disinilah letak ketertakjubanku pada peristiwa yang aku alami yang justru membuatku berpikir, tidak selamanya mungkin sebuah pertemuan dengan seseorang yang kita belum kita kenal akan melahirkan keinginan untuk ta’aruf, dan rasa sayang bisa saja terjadi tanpa didahului sebuah perkenalan yang memuat sebuah isian biodata yang harus diisi dalam blangko pencernaan pikiran biasa (tanya nama, alamat dan sebagainya).
Peristiwa yang pertama adalah sebuah peristiwa di sebuah bis kota yang melaju lamban di jalan raya yang macet di pinggir kota Jakarta yang memang sudah sangat padat setiap jalur badan jalannya dengan kendaraan yang berseliweran setiap harinya.
Hari cukup panas ketika itu dan bau keringat penumpang mulai menyebar menimbulkan sebuah perasaan tidak nyaman. Di sebelahku duduk seorang gadis berjilbab yang bertubuh agak besar. Dia sedang asyik membaca sebuah buku. Kulirik buku di tangannya dan mengenalinya sebagai salah satu buku yang sering aku lihat di pajang di toko buku.
Secara iseng (sungguh ini pertanyaan iseng karena aku mulai jenuh dengan masa menunggu kemacetan lalu lintas) aku mulai bertanya tentang apa judul buku yang dia baca. Gadis itu memperlihatkan judulnya padaku. Lalu aku mulai melontarkan pertanyaan apa isi buku tersebut dengan gaya sok akrab dan gadis itu melayani pertanyaanku dengan sabar dan penuh senyum.
Hmm, tampaknya dia mulai mengerti akan ketidak nyamanan yang aku alami dalam bis kota yang padat itu dan keterasingan untuk segera terbebas dari tempat dudukku yang keras sehingga dengan penuh keikhlasan gadis itu memberikan waktunya untuk menjawab pertanyaanku. Tanpa kami sadari kami terlibat sebuah diskusi menarik dan asyik.
Aku memang senang membaca dan lebih senang lagi jika diajak seseorang untuk bertukar pikiran tentang sebuah topik dari sebuah materi yang pernah aku baca atau aku ketahui. Hingga tak terasa tujuan akhir telah tiba. Gadis itu harus turun lebih dahulu dariku dan apa yang dia lakukan kemudian membuatku cukup ternganga dan sangat berkesan pada pertemuan dengannya.
“Aku ingin memberikan buku ini padamu.”
Subhanallah. Aku tahu dalam pembicaraan kami tadi bahwa buku itu belum dua jam yang lalu dibelinya di toko buku. Bahkan sampai halaman pertengahan pun gadis itu belum usai membacanya. Bagaimana mungkin dia akan memberikannya begitu saja padaku padahal tadi baru saja dia katakan bahwa dia menginginkan buku itu sejak lama sehingga dia menabung sedikit demi sedikit uang sakunya untuk dapat membeli buku itu.
“Tidak. Aku tidak menginginkannya. Buku itu milikmu, kamu belum selesai membacanya, bacalah dulu sampai selesai.” Aku menolaknya dengan keras.
“Tapi aku ingin memberikan buku ini padamu.” Gadis itu tetap bersikeras.
“Tidak.“
“Terimalah. Anggap ini hadiahku untukmu, kamu memang pantas menerimanya. Ayo, terimalah buku ini sebagai kenang-kenangan dariku karena aku tidak tahu kapan lagi kita akan bertemu di waktu yang akan datang.”
Duhai. Kalimatnya menimbulkan rasa haru yang mendalam, aku termangu sejenak tapi segera tersadar bahwa ini bukan saat yang tepat untuk jadi melankolis. “Tidak. Aku tidak bisa menerimanya.”
“Terimalah hadiahku ini. Kamu belum membacanya kan, bacalah, aku sudah membacanya sebagian dan isinya sangat menarik, sedangkan kamu belum membacanya sama sekali, aku ingin kamu membacanya juga dan bacalah sampai akhir.”
“Kenapa?“ Aku bertanya dengan bodoh. Sungguh aku tidak tahu kenapa gadis itu bersikeras memberikan buku barunya padaku.
“Kenapa kamu ingin memberikan buku barumu padaku, padahal kamu menginginkan buku ini sejak lama. Kenapa?”
“Karena aku sayang padamu. Aku ingin memberikan yang terbaik untukmu dan saat ini yang aku miliki adalah buku baruku ini. Percayalah padaku bahwa aku menyayangi kamu karena Allah semata sehingga jika saat ini kamu menginginkan yang lain dariku, seperti mataku, rambutku, tanganku, semua akan kuberikan padamu detik ini juga karena aku sayang padamu karena Allah semata.”
Aku makin ternganga. Belum ada satu jam kami berbincang dan diskusi tapi rasa sayang yang dia miliki padaku sudah demikian mendalamnya sementara namanya saja aku sama sekali tidak tahu karena dia memang hanya kujadikan seorang teman untuk membunuh waktu jenuhku di dalam kendaraan tersebut.
Ada sebuah rasa haru yang kian membuncah dalam dadaku mendengar untaian kalimat terakhirnya sekaligus melahirkan sebuah dorongan untuk menerbitkan mutiara bening dari sudut kelopak mataku. Aku tidak sanggup berkata apa-apa karena terbalut haru dan buku itu sudah berpindah tangan, diletakkan gadis itu di dalam genggamanku sementara dia bersiap untuk turun dari kendaraan. Pada perhentian selanjutnya gadis itu mulai berdiri menepi.
“Mbak..makasih yah. Aku tidak tahu bagaimana harus membalasnya bahkan kita belum sempat berkenalan. Mbak juga tidak tahu siapa aku.” Gadis itu hanya tersenyum ramah mendengar kalimatku yang mungkin terdengar sangat bodoh.
“Itu tidak penting. Yang aku tahu kamu adalah saudariku dalam islam. Semoga kita bisa bertemu di lain kesempatan dengan masing-masing dalam kondisi yang lebih baik.”
Kemudian bis berhenti dan setelah mengucapkan salam, gadis berjilbab itu melesat turun sambil melambaikan tangannya padaku. Aku membalas salamnya sambil tersenyum dan setelah dia menghilang dari pandanganku aku mulai membaca judul bukunya.
“Menjadi Muslimah yang kaffah.”
Hmm, mungkin dia memberikan buku itu karena aku belum berjilbab. Yup. Kejadiannya memang sudah lama sekali, sewaktu aku masih kuliah dulu dan masih banyak mempertimbangkan banyak hal sehingga belum timbul keinginan kuat untuk menutupi auratku secara lengkap dengan sebuah hijab yang semestinya.
Aku sangat terkesan dengan peristiwa itu karena di kampus, teman-teman akhwat lain lebih banyak yang memilih untuk tidak menaruh kepercayaan dan kasih sayang sebesar seperti yang diberikan oleh gadis tadi. Di kampus mereka memberlakukan sebuah jarak dalam membina hubungan denganku yang notabene sebenarnya memiliki agama yang sama dengan mereka hanya saja aku belum berjilbab. Image muslimah sebagai sebuah kelompok eksklusif dalam kepalaku telah hancur lebur dalam hitungan detik dengan kehadiran gadis berjilbab itu.
Sekarang aku alhamdulillah sudah mengenakan jilbab, sudah berkeluarga dan sudah dikaruniai dua orang jundi yang manis. Kesibukan sehari-hari dalam urusan pekerjaanku sebagai ibu rumah tangga hampir tidak menyisakan waktu luang bagiku. Lebih dari itu, kadang timbul sebuah proses pemilihan teman dalam bergaul yang terus terjadi tanpa aku sadari.
Jika ibu-ibu lain di sekitar rumahku sering berkumpul di depan pagar rumahnya maka bisa dikatakan aku jarang sekali ikut berkumpul dengan mereka. Jika ada acara pertemuan antar ibu-ibu di lingkungan rumahku, entah itu arisan rt, pengajian bulanan, pertemuan bulanan antar warga, atau bahkan acara resmi seperti selamatan atau kenduri, bisa dipastikan aku hanya hadir pada saat acara resmi itu berlangsung saja. Setelah acara resmi selesai, ketika piring gelas mulai dikumpulkan di tengah tikar, aku memilih untuk segera mengundurkan diri ketimbang ikut bergerombol bersama ibu-ibu yang lain membuat pembicaraan dan acara baru di luar acara inti.
Hmm, aku tetap berusaha untuk bergaul akrab, ikut tersenyum dan bersenda gurau atau berdiskusi dengan teman-teman ibu-ibu rumah tangga yang lain dalam konteks acara yang aku ikuti masih berlangsung. Setelah itu, setelah acara itu selesai, aku lebih memilih untuk mengundurkan diri lebih karena alasan menghindari kemudharatan.
Sudah bukan menjadi rahasia lagi apa yang dilakukan oleh para ibu-ibu rumah tangga jika mereka berkumpul dan mulai saling bercengkerama di luar sebuah acara yang terkoordinir. Mereka akan membicarakan hal-hal yang tidak bermanfaat dan inilah yang aku hindari. Terlibat dalam pergaulan seperti itu bagiku seperti memakan sebuah buah simalakama. Dimakan dalam arti kita melibatkan diri; kita akan terpengaruh dengan atmosfere mereka karena mau tidak mau kita akan mengeluarkan suara dan terlibat dalam pembicaraan mereka yang kelak kita akan menyesalinya sendiri. Pilihan kedua adalah tidak memakannya, yaitu kita tetap diam jadi pendengar dan itu artinya kita membiarkan isi pembicaraan mereka itu akan masuk ke telinga kita tanpa sebuah perlawanan, mengendap di dalam hati dan secara tidak sadar akan menimbulkan sebuah diskusi dengan diri sendiri yang lebih banyak melahirkan sebuah su'udzon dan ketidak nyamanan.
Ada sebuah pembenaran yang aku pegang dalam keputusanku untuk melakukan apa yang menurutku saat ini baik bagiku, yaitu mencegah sebuah kemudharatan itu lebih utama ketimbang menyebarkan manfaat. Hmm, benarkah pembenaran ini? WallahuÂ’alam.
Nah, dalam kesibukan memilih teman dalam pergaulan sehari-hari itulah terjadi peristiwa kedua yang juga sangat menyentuh hati dan memberi kesan yang sangat mendalam bagiku. Kejadiannya terselip dalam peristiwa rutinitas sehari-hari dan dalam waktu yang tidak terduga. Yaitu waktu shubuh.
Ada sebuah kebahagiaan tersendiri yang aku rasakan menjelang waktu shubuh. Yaitu kesempatan untuk berjalan menikmati suasana damai menjelang shubuh berdua saja dengan suamiku. Masjid tujuan kami letaknya lumayan jauh dari rumah dan waktu yang terhampar di selang perjalanan menuju masjid itu biasanya diisi dengan percakapan ringan yang lepas dari rasa kesal, jenuh dan bosan akan rutinitas pekerjaan dan kegiatan.
Yang ada hanyalah senda gurau atau curhat yang diiringi nasehat ringan diseling canda. Biasanya, setelah melakukan shalat shubuh berjamaah di masjid kami segera bergegas menuju rumah karena tugas rutinitas sehari-hari telah menunggu. Itu sebabnya waktu berangkat menuju masjid itu menjadi lebih istimewa (menjadi makin istimewa karena kadang kesehatanku yang sering terganggu dan kemalasan akibat kelelahan akan tugas sehari-hari membuat acara manis ini menjadi kian sulit dilakukan).
Hari itu, seperti biasa aku segera melipat perlengkapan shalatku dan mulai bersiap-siap untuk pulang ketika ada seseorang yang menyapaku. Seorang wanita tua yang tampak tersenyum dan memberiku salam. Aku membalas salamnya sambil ikut tersenyum.
“Apa kabar nak? kenapa sudah lama sekali tidak kelihatan?” sambil beringsut, aku mendekati ibu tua itu dan duduk di hadapannya sambil menyalaminya dengan sopan.
“Sakit bu. Saya sudah beberapa hari ini sakit jadi tidak bisa pergi kemana-mana termasuk ke masjid ini. Tapi alhamdulillah sekarang sudah sehat kembali. Ibu sendiri gimana kabarnya?”
“Alhamdulillah sehat nak.” Ibu itu masih memandangiku sambil tersenyum lembut sekali. Tiba-tiba dia meraih kedua pergelangan tanganku dan memegangnya dengan sangat erat.
“Ibu rindu sekali melihat kedatanganmu.. sudah hampir setengah bulan tidak melihat kamu hadir di sini.” Aku hanya tersenyum tapi dalam hati tak urung heran. Setengah bulan, artinya ibu itu menghitungnya. Artinya lagi, ibu ini tentu jamaah tetap di kala waktu shubuh di masjid ini…wah… bagaimana aku bisa tidak tahu akan kehadiran ibu ini setiap kali aku shalat disini. Hmm, mungkin karena aku selalu tergesa untuk pulang karena memikirkan pekerjaan rumah tangga yang terasa sudah antri untuk dikerjakan. Duh, betapa tidak pedulinya aku pada lingkunganku selama ini. Kalimat ibu itu mulai terasa seperti sindiran bagiku.
“Ibu selalu berdoa agar kamu sehat nak… sungguh, ibu mencintai kamu karena Allah dan selalu berharap bisa bertemu kamu di sini, di masjid ini meski ibu sendiri juga tidak yakin karena ibu sudah sangat tua dan makin rapuh.”
Subhanallah….
Kali ini aku sungguh-sungguh merasa terharu. Selama ini aku tidak pernah memperhatikan apa yang terjadi pada lingkungan sekitarku. Aku sibuk dengan urusan keseharianku sendiri, aku sibuk dengan diriku sendiri sedangkan ibu tua di hadapanku, yang mungkin hidupnya lebih susah, lebih kompleks permasalahannya, lebih rumit hal tentang kesehariannya, tetap memiliki kemampuan untuk memperhatikan lingkungannya.
Hmm.. tahukah anda. Kedua peristiwa berkesan di atas itu sebenarnya sebuah nasehat yang sangat manis dari Allah untukku. Subhanallah. Kadang, sebuah nasehat itu tidak melulu hanya berupa sebuah tausiyah panjang lebar tentang hamparan hadits dan ayat.
Sebuah nasehat bisa juga berupa perbuatan. Sama seperti perbuatan gadis berjilbab di bis kota di atas. Dengan memperlihatkan keramahan dan kesantunan serta keikhlasannya (sampai sekarang aku tidak pernah sekalipun lagi berjumpa dengannya, semoga Allah merahmatiNya selalu, amin), aku jadi tergugah akan keindahan ukhuwah dalam islam dan kemanisan budi pekerti muslimah sesungguhnya. Lebih dari itu, muncul semangat untuk benar-benar mewujudkan jati diri sebagai “Muslimah yang kaffah”, seperti nasehat yang diberikan dalam buku yang diberikannya secara cuma-cuma padaku.
Begitu juga dengan ibu tua di dalam masjid itu (hik..hik..aku tidak pernah berjumpa lagi dengannya, dan aku sampai detik ini tidak tahu siapa namanya, dimana dia tinggal dan informasi apapun tentang dia. Semoga beliau tetap dalam lindungan Allah SWT). Dengan kelembutan seorang ibu yang bijak, dia mengingatkan aku agar merindukan “masjid” selalu sesibuk apapun kegiatanku... ibu itu juga mengingatkan aku bahwa penilaian akan lingkunganku selama ini sebenarnya tidak selamanya benar. Bukankah di tengah hamparan rumput hijau di tengah padangpun selalu terselip bunga berwarna cantik yang harum baunya meski keberadaan bunga tersebut kecil mungil nyaris tak terlihat?
Kehadiran mereka berdua adalah penyejuk dahaga di tengah perjalanan panjang dan membosankan karena keterasingan yang monoton.
Kehadiran mereka adalah pendorong semangat ketika ghirah mulai kendur karena rutinitas keseharian yang mulai menegangkan urat syaraf. Hmm.. wallahuÂ’alam.
Aku jadi teringat sebuah hadits yang mengatakan bahwa :
“Tidak sempurna iman seseorang di antara kalian, sehingga ia mencintai saudaranya sebagaimana ia mencintai dirinya sendiri.” (Dari kitab shahih Muslim, yang diriwayatkan oleh Anas bin Malik).
Begitu besar rasa persaudaraan yang terkandung dalam hadits tersebut hingga tidak ada pemilahan kelompok di dalamnya yang berdasarkan pada beragam suku, ras, golongan, bangsa dan warna kulit. Semuanya adalah keluarga. “Sesungguhnya orang-orang mukmin adalah bersaudara.” (al Hujurat:10).
Mencintai disini adalah menginginkan segala kebaikan yang dia miliki untuk turut pula dirasakan oleh saudaranya.
“Demi Dzat yang jiwaku ada di TanganNya, tidak sempurna iman seseorang sehingga ia mencintai saudaranya sebagaimana ia mencintai kebaikan dirinya sendiri.” (Dari riwayat Nasa’i).
Kebaikan disini adalah kebaikan “menurut syariat” seperti ilmu yang bermanfaat, amal yang shaleh, dan akibat yang positif. Tidak ada tempat di sini untuk penilaian yang bersifat subjektif yang sering kita berlakukan jika kita memilih teman tanpa kita sadari. Sama seperti nasehat halus yang diberikan oleh gadis di bis kota itu padaku. Sementara teman-teman akhwat menolak kehadiranku yang “berbeda” dengan mereka yang berjilbab lebar, maka gadis itu dengan penuh keikhlasan mengajarkan aku arti ukhuwah sesungguhnya dan tanpa sadar memberiku semangat untuk “mengenal islam (agama perdamaian) lebih jauh”. Subhanallah.
Semoga kita semua bisa belajar untuk bisa pula menjadi suri tauladan seperti kedua tokoh “nyata” yang aku temui di dalam hidupku itu. Sungguh Maha Kuasa Allah yang telah memberiku pelajaran yang sangat berharga.
“Ya Allah, Engkau adalah Tuhanku, tidak ada Tuhan selain Engkau.
Engkau yang menciptakan ku dan aku adalah hambaMu.
Aku terikat dalam perjanjian dengan-Mu sekemampuanku.
Aku berlindung kepada-MU dari segala kejahatan yang telah aku lakukan.
Aku mengakui nikmat-nikmat-MU kepadaku dan aku mengakui dosaku, maka ampunilah aku, karena tak ada yang bisa mengampuni dosa-dosa, kecuali engkau” (HR. Bukhari)
Ade Anita
kafemuslimah.com
I've had this notebook for about three years already, and its only now when it finally retired.
The caption says "my favorite films", but I actually used it to log most of the movies i've seen (whether good or bad). I wrote about my thoughts on each one. Thanks for the service!
Entries:
1. Lake House (2006)
2. The Omen (2006)
3. 2 Days in Paris (2007)
4. I am Legend (2007)
5. 5th Element (1997)
6. Summer Storm (2004)
7. National Treasure (2008)
8. Juno (2007)
9. P.S. I Love You (2007)
10. Cloverfield (2008)
11. Darjeeling Limited (2008)
12. Once (2006)
13. Heights (2005)
14. The Kite Runner (2007)
15. Oldboy (2003)
16. These Girls (2005)
17. Horton Hears A Who! (2008)
18. Fat Girls (2006)
19. For The Bible Tells Me So (2007)
20. The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
21. The Real World Movie (2002)
22. Superbad (2007)
23. Into The Wild (2007)
24. Paris, Je Taime (2006)
25. El Orfanato (2007)
26. Rocket Science (2007)
27. Requiem For A Dream (2000)
28. Iron Man (2008)
29. Speed Racer (2008)
30. Shelter (2007)
31. High School Musical 3 (2008)
32. The Strangers (2008)
33. 100 (2008)
34. Let The Right One In (2008)
35. Four Christmases (2008)
36. The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
37. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
38. Bolt (2008)
39. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
40. Beautiful Thing (1996)
41. Yes Man (2008)
42. Running On Empty (1988)
43. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
44. Inkheart (2008)
45. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
46. Hamlet 2 (2008)
47. The Goonies (1985)
48. Milk (2008)
49. Doubt (2008)
50. Push (2009)
51. Marley & Me (2008)
52. 200 Pounds Beauty (2006)
53. Not A Love Story (1981)
54. Grizzly Man (2005)
55. Lars & The Real Girl (2007)
56. He’s Just Not That Into You (2009)
57. Choke (2009)
58. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
59. Man On Wire (2008)
60. Another Gay Movie (2006)
61. Watchmen (2009)
62. Gnome (Short) (2005)
63. Death in Gaza (2004)
64. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
65. Shortcut to Happiness (2004)
66. Mozart & The Whale (2005)
67. December Boys (2007)
68. Religulous (2009)
69. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
70. Rachel Getting Married (2008)
71. Fairies (Short) (2003)
72. Role Models (2008)
73. Dear Zachary (2008)
74. Temptation Island (2009)
75. Noises Off (1992)
76. 17 Again (2009)
77. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2008)
78. Le Clan (2004)
79. The Fall (2006)
80. Two Lovers (2008)
81. Xmen Origins (2009)
82. London (2005)
83. Sixteen Candles (1984)
84. Helvetica (2007)
85. Star Trek (2009)
86. Knowing (2009)
87. Amusement (2009)
88. Angels & Demons (2009)
89. The Edukators (2004)
90. Night at the Musem 2 (2009)
91. Accidental Husband (2008)
92. Sepet (2004)
93. Drag Me To Hell (2009)
94. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days (2007)
95. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
96. The Loss of A Teardrop Diamond (2008)
97. Arisan! (2003)
98. No Regret (2006)