The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

We travel back to 1920s Taiwan, first in the company of Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire and then follow a Tokyo travel bureau itinerary for Japanese tourists to the island. Ride the rails with us as we visit Shinto shrines, sugar factories, former “savages,” and scenic spots (not just any scenic spots but the official “Eight Views of Taiwan”). And we look at perhaps the most interesting aspect of colonial sightseeing: free guided trips to Japan for Indigenous Taiwanese leaders. These propaganda trips were meant to demonstrate why resistance to the Empire was futile, but they were not always home runs.

Between the late 1600s and mid-1800s, there was no Western presence on Taiwan. There were, however, a couple of special Western visitors of whom the wonderfully-named Joseph-Anne-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla was the most notable. This Jesuit priest was a hardcore scholar who spent 45 years in China. Emperor Kangxi gave de Mailla and fellow Jesuits a mission: "Go map my empire... including Taiwan!" This is the story of what the esteemed Jesuit priest saw when he visited Formosa in 1714.

The Saisiyat Indigenous people in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties have a famous story about magical “little people” or “dwarfs” called the Koko’ ta’ay. The legend goes that tensions between the tribe and the “dwarfs” led to an incident that killed off the little people, and which called down a curse on the Saisiyat. While most dismissed these stories as a myth, new research seems to indicate that that there were, in fact, “Negrito” people, such as can still be found in small bands in the Philippines and elsewhere, on Taiwan at least 5000 years ago - which could see the history books rewritten and the Koko’ ta’ay folklore recognized as being based on real experience!

Many new arrivals to Taiwan are perplexed to hear music from an "ice cream" truck playing almost every day, until they discover that those tunes mean it's time to take out your trash. Today, we've got the history of musical garbage trucks... and lots of reminiscing about the sounds of Taiwan in the 1990s.

Picking up on last week's conversation between the University of Southern California East Asian Studies Center's Li-ping Chen and author Andrew D. Morris -- a very special collaborative double episode with Formosa Files -- we learn more about how North/South Korean Cold War tensions affected air force defections from the PRC. As flying from northern China to Taiwan was almost impossible, most defectors taking off from the north headed to South Korea. The pair also give us more details on the rewards these "righteous warriors" received after arrival in Taiwan. This interview originally appeared on the New Books Network podcast. Visit them at www.newbooksnetwork.com

Formosa Files is delighted to announce a very special episode in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s East Asian Studies Center and the New Books Network! The USC’s Li-ping Chen recently interviewed Andrew D. Morris, the author of a 2022 book (of the same name as this episode’s title) on the defector pilots who risked it all to fly their planes (mostly military jets, but one famous case was a commercial airliner) to Taiwan from China. Each case is fascinating; some are even shocking. Many thanks to Li-ping Chen and Andrew D. Morris. Links to Morris' book and more info on the New Books Network can be found at www.formosafiles.com.  Check out https://newbooksnetwork.com/defectors-from-the-prc-to-taiwan-1960-1989 for the unedited interview.

Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, fellow Indian pro-independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose advocated taking up arms against the British. WWII presented a golden opportunity for this, and in an "enemy of my enemy" move Bose escaped from arrest in India and headed for Nazi Germany. But despairing of a German invasion of India that would overthrow the British, Bose turned to the Japanese. This controversial Indian revolutionary died in Taipei in 1945, leading to decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. Here's the story of this complex figure and his final fate in what was then still Taihoku, Japanese Formosa.

Sadly, the bloodshed and sorrow that began on February 28, 1947 (228) is the foundational story of post-Japanese Taiwan. Wu Zhou-liu (吳濁流), an ethnically-Hakka poet, writer, and journalist, was born in 1900 and died in 1976, his life effectively spanning the tumultuous birth of the nation. He experienced and documented colonial rule, WWII, the Japanese departure, and the hopeful first days of a "New China" which turned so quickly to violent tragedy. Wu's writings are today considered some of the most important of the modern era, but he remains mostly unknown to much of the world. Here is the beginning of Wu Zhou-liu's story.

As Formosa Files gets ready to end Season 2 and move into Season 3 (fingers crossed), John and Eryk pick season highlights, answer listener questions, talk about topics for upcoming episodes, and discuss those less-than-tidy "footnotes of history."

Eryk said to John, "All the traditional festivals celebrated in Taiwan have sad -- or even horrific -- backstories!" John said, "Really? Hmm... I doubt that." And so we recorded this episode, in which we tell the tales behind traditional festivals from Moon Festival to Tomb-Sweeping Day... and we'll let you be the judge, but it seems like Eryk won the debate.Plus: John quizzes Eryk on forgotten or lost holidays that were once part of the ROC calendar