Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan: the Spirit of 1895 and the Cession
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Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan On 19 April 1895, British Consul Lionel Charles Hopkins, at the northern port of Tamsui, was summoned by Tang Jingsong, the governor of Taiwan, to his yamen in the western district of Taipei. Shortly after his arrival, Hopkins was handed a petition. Signed by a number of Taiwanese ‘notables’, the document appealed to the British government to incorporate the island into a protectorate in the wake of an impending Japanese invasion. The British declined. This book addresses the interconnectivity of these two communities, by focusing on the market town of Dadaocheng in northern Taiwan. It seeks to con- textualise and examine the establishment of a ‘settler society’ as well as the cre- ation of a sojourning British community, showing how they became a precursor of modernity and ‘middle classism’ there. By uncovering who the signatories of the petition were and what their motivation was to call upon the British consu- late to bring the island under its protection, it brings into focus a remarkable period of transition not only for the history of Taiwan but also for the modern history of China. Using 1895 as a year of enquiry, it ultimately challenges the current orthodoxy that modernity in Taiwan was simply a by-product of the Jap- anese colonial period. As a social and transnational history of the events that took place in Taiwan during 1895, this book will be useful for students of East Asian Studies, Modern Chinese Studies, and Asian History. Niki J.P. Alsford is Reader in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire and is Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS. Routledge Research on Taiwan Series Editor: Dafydd Fell SOAS, UK The Routledge Research on Taiwan Series seeks to publish quality research on all aspects of Taiwan studies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the books will cover topics such as politics, economic development, culture, society, anthropology and history. This new book series will include the best possible scholarship from the social sciences and the humanities and welcomes submissions from established authors in the field as well as from younger authors. In addition to research mon- ographs and edited volumes general works or textbooks with a broader appeal will be considered. The Series is advised by an international Editorial Board and edited by Dafydd Fell of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies. 15 Place, Identity, and National 19 Taiwan’s Social Movements Imagination in Post- war under Ma Ying- jeou Taiwan From the Wild Strawberries to the Bi- yu Chang Sunflowers Edited by Dafydd Fell 16 Environmental Governance in 20 Culture Politics and Linguistic Taiwan Recognition in Taiwan A New Generation of Activists Ethnicity, National Identity, and and Stakeholders the Party System Simona A. Grano Jean- François Dupré 17 Taiwan and the ‘China Impact’ 21 Transitions to Modernity in Challenges and Opportunities Taiwan Edited by Gunter Schubert The Spirit of 1895 and the Cession of Formosa to Japan Niki J.P. Alsford 18 Convergence or Conflict in the Taiwan Strait 22 Changing Taiwanese Identities The Illusion of Peace? Edited by J. Bruce Jacobs and J. Michael Cole Peter Kang Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan The Spirit of 1895 and the Cession of Formosa to Japan Niki J.P. Alsford First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Niki J.P. Alsford The right of Niki J.P. Alsford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-24207-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-27921-3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear For my mother, Pamela Iris Alsford Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylora ndfra neis.com Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Note on transliteration x List of abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 The petition: the history behind a document 39 2 ‘The poor in China just grab a bag and run over’: Han pioneer settlement in Formosa from the seventeenth century 77 3 The British treaty-port community 98 4 ‘And there the twain shall meet’: the formation of an urban gentry in a market town in northern Taiwan 125 5 The spirit of 1895: occupation, capitulation, and resistance 155 Conclusion 190 Bibliography 198 Index 223 Illustrations Figures 4.1 Foreign firms and consulates 140 4.2 Borrowed capital in nineteenth-century Taiwan 144 5.1 The Taiwan War of 1895: dates of military action 160 Tables 2.1 Land registered for taxation in Taiwan by county 86 4.1 The changing trade patterns of Taiwan 125 5.1 The structure of the Republic of Formosa 176 Acknowledgements I am grateful to a number of people who have supported and directed me throughout this journey. Chief among them are Robert Ash (SOAS) and Murray Rubinstein (Columbia), Lars Laamann (SOAS), and Andrea Janku (SOAS); also Dafydd Fell and Chang Bi- yu at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS. I want also to express my deepest appreciation to Jacques Rouyer Guillet, Dean Karale- kas, Sarah Lee, and Michael Talbot who have gone out of their way to assist me in this project. At different stages in the preparation of this book, a number of individuals have been helpful with recommendations, suggestions, advice on sources, and other forms of encouragement. Chief among them is Ann Heylen at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). This book is a product of my PhD research and, as such, a special vote of thanks is due to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, the Council of Indigenous Peoples, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through the Taiwan Fellowship) for their generous financial support during these years. This book is an outcome of the research project Power and Strategies of Social and Political Order, which was financed by the Oriental Institute (OI), Czech Academy of Sciences and I am deeply indebted to Ondřej Beránek, the Director of the OI for giving me this opportunity. I am grateful for the comments provided by the three anonymous reviewers and all the hard work by the team at Routledge. Last, but by no means least, my warmest thanks must go to my wife and daughter, Jo Hsuan Wang and Sanoe Alsford, for their patience and guidance. To anyone whose name I have failed to mention, please accept my deepest apologies, but please believe me when I say that I am truly grateful for all the assistance I have received from every quarter. Note on transliteration In this book I have tried to standardise Chinese words and provide a clear codifi- cation of Taiwanese place names. Wherever possible, I have included the current- standard alternative that is officially used in Taiwan. Since the Hanyu Pinyin (hereafter HP) system has become the international norm for Chinese Romanisation, I have used this as the standard in all other circumstances. In the case of individuals who place their family name first, I have retained the convention unless the text indicates otherwise. In addition, if an author of a current publication has used a different form of Romanisation from that of HP, or has added a hyphen in their first name, I have made no attempt to adjust the original. For consistency, all other Romanisation of Chinese words uses HP, although where people and/or places adopt a different system, I have referenced this in the first instance. The term Formosa will be used interchangeably with Taiwan, depending on the context in which either is used. When the place name ‘Taiwan’ refers to the prefectural capital, present- day Tainan, I have added a hyphen to indicate this, i.e. ‘Tai- wan fu’. The only additional systems used in this book are Romanised Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-gí, Taiyu, 臺語) and Japanese. For Japanese terms, the standard system of Revised Hepburn will be used. For Taiwanese Hokkien, the current accepted system in Taiwan is adopted: for example Twatutia, Tōa-tiū-tiâ, Dadaocheng, 大稻埕. Any in- text parentheses are as in the original documents. In order to designate editorial emendations, square brackets are used. Abbreviations CR Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal DA James Laidlaw Maxwell Archive, Birmingham EJLA Elder John Lai Archives FO Foreign Office GPM Grand Palace Museum IN Imprimerie Nationale ITH Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica LI Illustrated London News MCAR Maritime Customs Annual Report NCH North China Herald NGB Nihon Gaikō Bunsho (Japanese Diplomatic Documents) NTM National Taiwan Museum NYH New York Herald PCE/FMC Presbyterian Church of England/Foreign Missions Committee TBRE Taiwan Bank Research Room of Economy TH Taiwan Historica TPC Taiwan Power Company TPER Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960 VOC Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylora ndfra neis.com Introduction ‘Today, we cannot comprehend the terror that gripped the 1895 audience facing the Lumière brothers’ arriving train.’1 This sentence, from an exhibition bro- chure written in the 1990s, was a reference to a fifty- second sequence of an everyday experience of a train pulling into a station (L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de la Ciotat) that was greeted with both fear and panic by the consternated audience.