Enchantment Of The World: Taiwan, by Barbara A. Somervill

This book is a pretty good one, part of the classic and common books that one can find about countries that are written for middle grade audiences looking to understand countries around the world. As someone who requests from the library, sight unseen, lots of books about nations around the world, this book is certainly one that belongs on that list and someone could gain a great deal of information and insight about the nation of Taiwan from this book. It should be noted, at the outset, that Taiwan is perhaps the most notable unrecognized nation in the world, a nation which has a clear government, a well-developed economy that has a strong technology sector, and some important cities as well as environmental sites that are worthy of protection (and part of a rising movement to increase environmental awareness in the country). Likewise, Taiwan also has an interesting and complicated history that involves aboriginal Austronesians, multiple waves of Chinese immigration, and a history of Japanese colonial rule, all of which continue to influence Taiwan.

This book is not a perfect one, even if it is a good one, largely because the book is short but also a bit repetitive in the information it includes. The fast facts that the book contains at the end are already given earlier in the book, a real missed opportunity to provide more facts about Taiwan and instead giving the same ones again (namely the tallest mountain, longest river, biggest cities, largest lake, and so on). That said, in between the repetitive facts there is a lot of really interesting information about Taiwan that is well worth reflecting on, including Taiwan’s religious beliefs and its mixture, the aboriginal culture that Taiwan has sought to preserve, the struggle that rural areas have in holding on to population in the face of massive urbanization, and so on. The author has a lot of knowledge about some very interesting areas of Taiwanese history and culture and these are well worth finding out.

In terms of its contents, this book is 144 pages long, a pretty standard length for books of this kind. The book begins with a chapter on Taiwan’s love of baseball (1), the nation’s favorite sport. This is followed by a discussion of Taiwan’s mountainous terrain (2), as well as the notable animals of the nation, like monkeys and magpies (3). This is followed by a discussion of Taiwanese history (4) and the complex government of the nation, which includes five branches of government divided into three levels (5). After that the author discusses the global economy Taiwan is involved with from semiconductors to orchids (6). The author discusses urban life in Taiwan (7), the themes of religion and respect common in Taiwanese culture (8), as well as Taiwanese culture regarding music, movies, and martial arts (9). After a chapter about Taiwanese family life (10), the book ends with a timeline, fast facts, where to find out more information about Taiwan, and an index. As can be expected about this book, it is full of excellent photography that gives a beautiful picture of a wonderful country.