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CLASS SCHEDULE
Introduction
Discourses of history
Elections
Austronesian
Elections
Early Colonialism
Qing Society
Japanese Takeover
Baseball
2-28
Little China
Democratization
Environment
Museums
Religion
Family and Marriage
Local and National
National and Global

ANTHROPOLOGY 469A/JSIS 484F

TAIWAN: CULTURE, SOCIETY, HISTORY

TOPICS AND READINGS FOR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1

TOPICS
Here we return to the relationship between the past and history. There is no doubt that the Japanese defeated hastily organized but heroic resistance and took over Taiwan militarily, and there is no doubt that they accomplished many reforms even early in their colonial administration, including abolition of foot-binding, building workable railroads and sailable harbors, and eliminating smallpox. But there is a lot of question about what it all meant in the eyes of the people at the time, and what it all means in the eyes of today's Taiwan Question.

READINGS
  • Harrell, Stevan. 1990. From Xiedou to Yijun, Late Imperial China 11 (1): 99-127). The relationship between the class divisions within Chinese society and the takeover by Japan.
  • Takekoshi Saburo [George Braithwaite, translator]. 1907. Chapter 1, Brief Survey of our success, and chapter 3, Rise and Fall of the So-called Republic in Japanese Rule in Formosa. What the Japanese thought they were doing, in one of their own officials' words. (London: Longmans, Green) pp. 1-11
ASSIGNMENT
By 8:00 a.m on Monday, February 1, please post 200-400 words on the question of whether you think the Japanese takeover of Taiwan was a good thing or a bad thing, especially considering what had happened in Japan since 1868 and what was happening in China between the failed 1898 reforms and the revolution of 1911.