Taiwan's Imagined Geography
Subtitle: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
Published: June 30, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780674014510
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 1500 to c 1900; History: World; History; History - General History; China; Taiwan; Asia - China; Asian - General; History / China; Description and travel; History and criticism; Travelers' writings, Chinese
Description: "Until 350 years ago, the Chinese considered Taiwan a "savage island" beyond the pale of Chinese civilization. When the Qing conquered the island in 1683, the court debated the value of colonizing this "ball of mud." Yet, two centuries later, in 1895, Chinese writers lamented the island's cession to Japan as a loss of sacred national territory. Taiwan's trajectory from "savage island" to China's "sovereign territory" is the subject of this book."--BOOK JACKET.