Taiwan: A New History, edited by Murray A. Rubinstein. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, 1999. xiv+520pp. US$69.95 (hardcover); US$27.95 (paperback).

From Lee Teng-hui's visit to USA in 1995, following the saber-rattling show of Chinese military muscle toward Taiwan, the victory of Lee's presidential election, Asian financial crisis, to recent political claim of 'special state-to-state relationships between Taiwan and China', the social reaction to the devastating earthquake, and the millenium presidential election, all these events share a common theme: Taiwan society's anxiety of knowing its identity in the world. The identity problem is a product of Taiwan's history. Should it consider itself as a zone of Chinese frontier? Or should it de-sinicize itself and accept Western culture? This problem has been a main concern in the past four hundred years, and definitely will continue to be a dominant issue in the future. This book, edited by Murray A. Rubinstein, can be said a book from the historical perspective to probe the collective identification problem faced by Taiwanese to date.

There are a lot of English books on Taiwan, but most of them focus on Taiwan's economic development and its role in geopolitics, which reflects the development of post-cold war international politics and new division of labour. The publication of this collaborative book offers us a new way to understand 'the other Taiwan'.

Editor says that Taiwan is Taiwan, linked to China, yet forged out of its own unique historical processes. Based on this thinking, he tries to escape from the 'old mainstream' research and approach a 'new' Taiwan history from different perspectives. Chapters are arranged chronically, from its formal beginnings as a political entity to a home of the Kuomintang-controlled Republic of China. Chapter 1 gives us an orientation to understand Taiwan's physical and human environment. The following fifteen chapters plus an epilogue centralize on four themes: 1) Taiwan's social, political and cultural history confined by China's larger, expansionist history; 2) both conflictual and cooperative relationship between the indigenous peoples and the Han peoples; 3) the impact of the West in Taiwanese history; 4) the development of a unique Taiwanese identity.

Chapter 2 (The Politics of Taiwan Aboriginal Origins) and 15 (Aboriginal Self-Government: Taiwan's Uncompleted Agenda) explore how Han people, including Chinese and Taiwanese, politicizes the origins of indigenous peoples, and how the consciousness of indigenous self-government is evolved. Chapter 5 (The Island Frontier of the Ch'ing, 1684-1780) discusses the complex ethnic relations in the early Ch'ing dynasty. In a book of only 16 chapters with three chapters on domestic ethnic relations, it shows that the editor has a close watch on Taiwan recent social development.

Chapter 4 (The Seventeenth-Century Transformation: Taiwan Under the Dutch and the Cheng Regime), 7 (From Treaty Ports to Provincial Status, 1860-1894), 8 (Taiwan Under Japanese Rule, 1985-1945: The Vicissitudes of Colonialism), 11 (A Bastion Created, A Regime Reformed, An Economy Reengineered, 1949-1970) and 16 (Political Taiwanization and Pragmatic Diplomacy: The Eras of Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui, 1970-1994) portray the historical track in the international context. These chapters can be read as the explanation of external structural forces shaping Taiwan's unique identity, which is not only a subjective matter, but also a product of historical-social development.

Chapter 3 (Up the Mountain and Out to the Sea: The Expansion of the Fukienese in the Late Ming Period), 6 (From Landlords to Local Strongmen: The Transformation of Local Elites in Mid- Ch'ing Taiwan, 1780-1862) and 10 (Between Assimilation and Independence: Taiwanese Political Aspirations Under Nationalist Chinese Rule, 1945-1948) look at the activities of Chinese migrants in the new frontier zone. The long-term migration process has produced the tensions arisen from two sides, ie., Taiwan and China, interests conflict, which in turn produces the forces that drive Taiwan toward independent status.

Chapter 9 (Taiwanese New Literature and the Colonial Context: A Historical Survey), 12 (Identity and Social Change in Taiwanese Religion) and 14 (Literature in Post-1949 Taiwan, 1950 to 1980s) explore the cultural aspect of Taiwan society. These chapters tell readers how Chinese identity changed in cultural matters. The epilogue depicts the dramatic months from late 1995 to the late spring of 1996.

Basically this is a book of history, following its discipline to write a new Taiwan history. From this viewpoint, it is a very successful book in several levels. First, it is well organized. The structure of the book is chronicle, and very handy for all readers to find out relevant data in a specific period. Second, abundant materials with 'unorthodox' perspectives give us a different and interesting image of Taiwan, a country not only with vibrant economy but also with diversified cultures and complex social issues. Third, some authors (Robert P. Weller, Michael Stainton) use cultural theories to explain different social aspects, which make the book even more attractive and rich. Even the explanation of postwar Taiwan economic development is not so orthodox as the neoclassical economists often claim.

Nevertheless, one minor disappointment of the book comes from its own merit, i.e., no consistent description of a specific topic. For example, though aborigines in Taiwan history is considered by the editor as an important issue, the writing of this issue in different stage is disproportional. In Japanese colonial stage, only a few sections are referred to describe the aboriginal reactions under certain colonial policies. There is no writing in this book to explain the development of aboriginal communities between 1945 and 1980. Or like the issue of social elites, or more precisely, social stratification is widely discussed in Ch'ing dynasty, and is left untouched in colonial times, and after 1945, it is explained by educational stratification.

" Taiwan: A New History" is well put together, and without doubt, both an excellent read and a very good buy. The minor disappointment mentioned does not detract from the fact that the book provides thought-provoking reflections on Taiwan's history and its identity. Everyone interested in Taiwan should read it.

Hong-zen Wang

Tamkang University