Taiwan (Cultures Of The World), by Azra Moiz, Janice Wu, and Debbie Nevins

This book is the third edition of a popular series of books about the various countries of the world that aims its writings at a middle grade level student in world geography, which I took in the seventh grade myself. I often find this sort of book to be an interesting read, both for the photographs (which give a good understanding of the scenes that one could at least hope to see, at least in part, in one’s own personal travels) as well as for the explanation of the culture and context in which a country exists. Taiwan, relative to many countries, is in a strange situation where it is a de facto nation with a well-functioning and complex government, a highly developed economy, and significant trade linkages with the outside world, but where its neighboring bully of China blackmails and coerces other nations from recognizing their statehood by pushing its own weight around. There is, therefore, a great deal of larger issues about the definition of what it means to be a nation hanging around Taiwan than is typically the case when it comes to nations in the world.

In terms of Taiwan’s culture, there are a few things that interest me a great deal about it. For one, the relationship between four different groups of people within Taiwan is one that fascinates me. Taiwan’s people are composed of four groups, the most populous being Hakka and Fukienese Chinese who have long had a great deal of social friction, the mainland Chinese who were originally the elites but whose position has declined as Taiwanese Chinese have become more powerful economically and politically with democratization, and a small proportion of indigenous people of Austronesian descent that make up a couple percent of the country and whose existence is a lot like the Native Americans in the United States or the first peoples in Canada or similar such peoples. Taiwan, in other words, is a clear colonial situation of a nation that has so far successfully resisted a far more powerful imperial neighbor in China but which has its own colonial situation with native peoples on Taiwan and the islands around it. Similarly, Taiwan’s government, with its five branches, is deeply interesting, especially since one of those branches was explicitly designed to control a bureaucracy, a branch of government that may be useful for other nations like the United States which have problems from swamp creatures of the civil service bureaucracy. For these reasons and more, including some stark natural beauty and quirky animals, Taiwan interests me a great deal and is a nation I would like to explore if given the chance.

In terms of its contents, this book is a bit less than 150 pages and is divided into thirteen chapters. The book begins with a short feature on Taiwan today. After that there is a discussion of the geography of Taiwan, including its cities and flora and fauna (1). This is followed by a discussion of its history, from aboriginal settlers and early contacts with China to European and Japanese occupation as well as its political status (2). The authors then turn their attention to the government of Taiwan, which includes a constitution and five branches of government–the usual three plus an examination branch that recruits civil servants and a control branch that seeks to keep them in line and out of corruption (3). The authors then turn their attention to issues of the economy (4), including industry, agriculture, and limited mineral resources, and environmental issues (5). This is followed by a discussion of the Taiwanese people (6) as well as the lifestyle (7) of the nation, which at least until recently was highly traditional in nature. The author spends time discussing the religion of Taiwan (8), which is a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, and various folk religions. This is followed by a discussion of the languages of Taiwan (9), various folk and fine art traditions (10), leisure activities, including martial arts and karaoke (11), festivals relating to civil and religious themes (12), and the cuisine of Taiwan, with its mixture of Chinese and Japanese traditions (13). The book ends with a national map, information about the economy and culture, timeline, glossary, further information, bibliography, and an index.