Customer Reviews

Taiwan: A New History (Taiwan in the Modern World (M.E. Sharpe Paperback))

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book contains a series of well written, up to date, essays that explain the history of this small island. They cover a wide range of topics from aboriginals and literature, to Missionaries and the Japanese colonization, through to the development of the country both economically and politically.

Even a long term resident of Taiwan like me has found plenty of things I never new about the place. Actually, a lot of the history in this book would be unknown to the Taiwanese themselves!

My only small complaint about this scholarly and thorough work is the total lack of Chinese characters; even in the index Romanized forms only are found.

This is a response to Denny Roy's review. Prof. Roy is indeed a rival of sorts having recently written a political history of Taiwan that may soon be published. He and a number of others find my definition of history--or rather my broad conception of history--troubling but I will stand by it. I have called on the resources of the best people I know in the subfield of Taiwan studies and they have produced admirably researched and written chapters. The book is designed as a comprehensive single volume work that provides an introduction to Taiwan and all facets of its history. Thus literature, religion, geography, ethnography, and culture are included in the mix. Some scholars such as Prof Roy and Prof. John Copper among them are are more focused on politics but there is more to history than politics in this new and decidedly multi-cultural and post modern world. One person's comprehensiveness is another's choppiness but so be it. I think the book is well integrated and the individual authors have worked through, in good measure, the themes spelled out in the introduction. One other important point The political struggles KMT-dangwai of the 1970s and 1980s, struggles I saw first hand on Taiwan are dealt with within the context of the matrix of events and are part of a large scale political narrative. They are not however the only subject of this long chapter. In other books I have focused on this period and its actors such as Lu Hsiu-lien as well as the Presbyterian Church but this was not the time for such detail. Pro. Roys own focus on the modern period is well done indeed but then he writes a formal "poltical" history, while I do not. One final point: What I find annoying is the tone of the review at certain points, particularly the comments on the concluding section. I think they work and they sum up the book and its major themes.

I invite others who know the book such as Alan Wachman and other Taiwan hands or China hands as well as journalist and members of the public to add their voices to this discussion of a book that many recognize as an invaluable work for scholar and lay reader alike.

This is one of the most complete books on Taiwan and its history available in the English language. The reading is dense in places and is highly academic, but for anyone who has a background in Taiwan's history and wants to get in depth, this would the volume for you.

Beginning from Taiwan's physical environment, other specialists focus on aboriginal Taiwan, the encroachment of the Minnan people, from the Dutch and Cheng to incorporation by the Ching Dynasty. The late ninteenth century receives some coverage in depth. There is also a frank assessment of the Japanese occupation years.

About half of the book is devoted to post- World War II Taiwan. Political, religious, modernization and other topics of modern Taiwan are discussed in depth. Unfortunately, due to the dating of the book, recent democratic developments are not covered (the book stops shortly following President Lee Tung Hui's popular election as President). However, for anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of Taiwan, other than actually living here, this book is one of the best options available.

For the novice on Taiwan, I recommend reading Denny Roy's "Taiwan: A Political History first." It is an excellent read and not as dense as this work.

There are few recent books that attempt to cover all of Taiwan's history, making Rubinstein's effort valuable and appreciated. I found parts of it useful in writing my own book on Taiwan's history (yes, let's acknowledge that this reviewer has a potential conflict of interest). Almost all edited books, however, suffer from the difficulty of achieving unity and thoroughness while avoiding repetition with the ensemble cast of authors with their own styles and interests. Rubinstein's book is no exception. I found chapters 4 through 8, 10 and 11 excellent history. Other periods, however, were not so well covered. I found it astounding that the book does not include a chapter on the political opposition's successful campaign to force the KMT government to begin to liberalize in the 1980s, an extremely important period in Taiwan's history. Yet the book throws in chapters on Taiwan's geography, religion and literature. Rather than a "history," the book is really an assemblage of chapters on history, political science, geography, economics, and humanities--different layers made of clay, plastic and metal, with no attempt to integrate them. This book is better understood, perhaps, as a Taiwan reader. I must also mention that Rubinstein's writing at the end of the book is uncharacteristically poor and rough, as if he rushed through it to meet a deadline. Overall: worthwhile, but does not fulfill its promise. (If my book gets published, I'll be bracing for Rubinstein's retaliation.)

This book was a major disappointment. Each chapter is written by a different person; the book is really just a collection of dry academic articles slapped together, with no organizing structure. The alleged editor is also one of the contributing authors, and it doesn't appear that he did much editing at all. The overall quality of the book is substandard, with amateurish and badly printed black and white photographs taken by the editor.

Worst of all, judging by the first two selections, the writing is pretty awful. Here's a sample of the obtuse academic style you will find in this volume:
"The Chinese hegemonic project of making Taiwanese aborigines part of the Chinese nation was incompatible with the developing counterhegemonic aboriginal project of affirming their distinct identity and political rights as indigenous people." (page 37)
Hard to believe that such a passage could have been written by a native English speaker, much less that it actually got published!

Instead of this volume, I recommend Denny Roy's book, which is quite well-written.

A must have book for Taiwan research.