The island of Formosa is not on the traditional tourist trail in Asia, but may be it ought to be; any country with such an interesting history should. Kushan Mitra finds out more
Taiwan is a strange country; it has a remarkable history and even today, as the Republic of China (ROC), it is in a strange state of limbo with its giant western neighbour — the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC claims that Taiwan is a renegade province and no country recognises both the PRC and ROC at the same time.
In fact, even in the Olympics, Taiwanese athletes cannot compete under their own flag; and for years, links between the two separate nations, both claiming to be ‘China’, were limited. There were no direct flights between the two countries, a fact that to some extent aided the growth of Hong Kong into a massive global aviation hub, with the route between Hong Kong and Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, becoming the busiest air corridor in the world.
Things are a lot more peaceful now, though the Taiwan Strait — the shallow body of water that separates the main island from China is barely 180 km wide — remains one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world. Direct flights between Taiwan and mainland China, as the PRC is better known, are allowed and Taiwanese investors poured billions of dollars into the mainland kickstarting the transformation of the PRC.
Yet, Taiwan remains a place that few people visit for travel; most visitors to the island usually come for business. Most tourists are either mainland Chinese or Japanese who visit their former colony. But the island is now on a massive drive to promote itself as an alternative for tourists in search of something new.
To be fair, Taiwan is not just one island, but it has one main island called Formosa. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the island and named it ‘Ilha Formosa’ (Beautiful Island), although it was the Dutch who colonised it in the 17th century. What they took over was an island dominated by people of more than 30 tribes (although only 14 are officially recognised).
The tribespeople who dominated the island are believed to have moved over from Asia around 15,000 years ago. The Taiwanese aborigines share their cultural and genetic heritage with the people of the South Pacific; some studies believe that Polynesia culture originated from here.
However, after the Dutch were turfed out first by the Qing dynasty in the later part of the 17th century, a process called ‘sinification’ began. This is not ethnic cleansing, but as boatloads of Han Chinese moved from the mainland to settle down in the island and married into the local tribes, an inherently Chinese identity began to take root.
For 50 years between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan became a Japanese province, returning to Chinese control once Japan surrendered in World War II. Surprisingly, local Taiwanese with roots before 1949 do not remember the Japanese as the violent occupiers as they are remembered in the mainland. Several Taiwanese and Japanese families maintain links with each other and several older Taiwanese still speak fluent Japanese.
But the defining moment in Taiwan’s political history came in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the nationalist faction in China’s civil war, was defeated by Mao Tse-tung, leader of the communists. Chiang fled across the straits, with (the Chinese allege) boatloads of bullion, some of China’s most famous cultural treasures and several thousand refugees.
This displaced the aboriginal occupants of the land, and today they number under 500,000 people — less than two per cent of Taiwan’s population of an estimated 23 million. That said, Taiwan considers anyone with one-eighth aboriginal blood (one great-grandparent) to be an aborigine.
Only now, over the last two-odd decades, have the Taiwanese authorities ‘rediscovered’ the country’s heritage and are busy promoting it. Even though much has been lost, several tribes, such as the Thao in the Central Taiwanese Highlands, have maintained their identity, thanks to the inaccessible nature of Formosa. The island’s geography is such that the plains on the east are matched by mountains on the west, and while many of the plains tribes have been totally assimilated, mountain tribes remain.
It is in Thao country that I visited the Aboriginal Culture Village bordering the Sun Moon lake in the central highlands of Taiwan. Some have argued that commercialisation of traditional culture is exploitative, but most of the workers in the park had aboriginal roots and like our guide, seemed very happy that they could earn a good living while retaining at least some of their culture.
There is a touch of ‘Disney-fication’ here; the local village lakes in this theme park look like swimming pools. As the aboriginal culture is not apparently enough to keep the theme park going by itself, the park also has a European garden and several adventure rides. But the cultural performances themselves are quite good and show the long shared heritage of people stretching from India’s Northeast (evident in the aboriginal clothing) to the people in South Pacific islands and all the way to Hawaii.
But while Taiwan is rediscovering its ancient cultural history, it is also building a new one. A quick train journey on the nation’s impressive High-Speed Rail network down to the southern end of Formosa takes less than two hours between Taipei and Kaohsiung, leading to the collapse of the domestic air travel industry.
In an abandoned sugar refinery on the outskirts of the city is the Ten Drum Centre. The Ten Drum Percussion group, which is based here, is trying to preserve the Chinese percussion tradition performing traditional music but infusing that with modern music trends. The music which falls into the ‘world music’ category, if you like that sort of thing on Internet radio stations, is impressive and experiencing a live performance is extremely rewarding. After the performance, a walk through the tastefully restored refinery replete with a World War II-era bomb shelter sets one up for the drum-learning area where visitors are given basic lessons in keeping a beat on the drums.
The next day we visited the Buddha Memorial Centre on the other end of the southern city. Opened in late-2011, the complex built by the Fo Guang Shang, a Taiwan-based Mahayana Buddhist order, was constructed to house a tooth relic of the Buddha that was previously housed at the now-destroyed Namgyal Monastery in Tibet. This huge complex built on 100 hectares of land is possibly the most modern religious building in the world. It might lack the gravitas of an ancient temple complex — such as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat or even complexes in India — but religion and spirituality can be modernised; there is no lack of respect for the gods worshipped across the complex and there is a sense of reverence everywhere. And while this complex may not be to everyone’s taste, it is the best template possible for a modern temple.
We visited the Taiwan International lantern Festival later that evening, ostensibly the reason for the visit to Taiwan. This festival, now an annual occurrence in Taiwan, began as the lantern Festival which marks the end of the 15-day Chinese New Year period. As Taiwan’s economy boomed in the 1970s and 1980s, people discovered new techniques of making lanterns and also making their lanterns in shapes and sizes previously unimaginable. At the festival, some of the creations even by children as young as eight show the immense potential of paper and bamboo shoots. Interestingly, the candle inside the lantern has been replaced by an lED light and some of the more complex lanterns — particularly the ones based on Japanese animated robot (Gundam) — used steel skeletons. The festival, which rotates from city to city every year (this year it was in Hsinchu), has become a highlight in Taiwan’s cultural calendar and brings in tourists and enthusiasts from across the world. If there is a single time and reason to visit Taiwan, this is it.
The next day we paid a visit to the National Palace Museum on the outskirts of Taipei. This museum has become the repository of a lot of Chinese culture. When Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland, he also moved close to 3,000 crates of artifacts from the Forbidden City in Beijing to Taipei. Interestingly, given the excesses of the Cultural Revolution in China under Mao, Chiang might have saved a lot of Chinese history.
The museum has an amazing collection of ancient Chinese art and shows the dexterity with which the ancient Chinese created art. In fact, their collections of Jade are amazing; also, several artifacts owe their lineage to India, showcasing the deep bonds between these two Asian civilisations.
This country is less than 400 km long and not even 100 km wide as its widest point — the State of Assam is twice its size. Yet, in terms of history and culture, it has a lot to offer. As it is off-the-beaten track, travel to Taiwan is not very expensive and hotels and food are relatively cheap. If you are looking for somewhere new to visit, do consider Taiwan.
