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History of Taiwan

A Captivating Guide to Taiwanese History and the Relationship with the People's Republic of China

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History of Taiwan

By: Captivating History
Narrated by: Edwin Andrews
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About this listen

If you want to discover the captivating history of Taiwan, then pay attention....

The history of Taiwan is astonishing. Politically, Taiwan - was a warlord culture. The Portuguese, when passing by the island in the mid-1540s, called the island “Ilha Formosa,” which means “Beautiful Island”.

Then the Dutch came in the 1620s, searching for a base of operations for the Dutch East India Company.

Then the Han Chinese came in the 17th century. Many of these Han Chinese were refugees from the wars in China. This influx caused an explosive reaction.

And then came the Japanese in 1894! Taiwan was subjugated to a Japanese program of inculcation. All the people of Taiwan had to learn Japanese, and Shinto shrines cropped up everywhere.

Then came Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. He awakened the conflict between the vestiges of Japanese influences and the Republic of China.

Having been inflicted with so many cultural and political invasions, a new breed of Taiwanese people rose up, and they wanted freedom from the oppression they had faced for decades, although there were some who wanted socialism and communism. Taiwan is not even recognized as an independent sovereign by every country in the world today.

Listen Taiwan’s story - a story of an island that walks a tightrope searching for its identity, balance, and fate.

In History of Taiwan: A Captivating Guide to Taiwanese History and the Relationship with the People's Republic of China, you will discover topics such as:

  • Formosa: Beautiful island
  • The arrival of the Chinese and their religion
  • The Dutch trading years
  • The Ming, the Qing, and Japan: The war years
  • Japanese Taiwan
  • Taiwan after World War II
  • And much, much more!

So if you want to learn more about the history of Taiwan, then buy this book today!

©2019 Captivating History (P)2019 Captivating History
Asia Education Island War
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    3 out of 5 stars

Does the trick, but many issues

The most glaring issue with this audiobook is the pronunciation of pretty much all Chinese names. While Romanisation issues and historical differences are all understandable, it was evident that the narrator not only had no linguistic background in Chinese languages (which is not a requirement, but would be ideal for an audiobook of this nature), but more importantly had done little to no even basic research on Pinyin pronunciation (i.e. the "King" dynasty). This was not only quite jarring to listen to, but also made it hard to identify names and places that were being said in order to look further into them.

There were also at least 3 instances I noticed of lines being stumbled and respoken that weren't edited out. Not major, but add to the feeling of this being a low effort project.

As for the book itself, while it does somewhat serve the purpose of being a bite-sized summary of Taiwan's history, you pretty much do get what you pay for. The structure is unfocused, broadly chronological but jumps around a lot in the timeline to the extent that as a listener there were many parts that were pretty hard to follow. The latter parts generally felt less disjointed than earlier parts, though the writing about WW2 slightly loses track of it's intended focus on Taiwan.

I also very much did not trust the information given about Taiwan's Indigenous populations, as it felt incredibly oversimplified, often saying stuff like "the Indigenous people would do yada yada" without much regard as to which tribes, what areas etc. For a specific history of Taiwan, this feels remiss.

I'm aware that some of this is nitpicky, and I don't mean to say that the book completely fails in delivering a concise history of Taiwan, but it's definitely not a book I'd actively recommend to someone.

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It was a good book, with historical context. It wa

It was a good book, a great reader, and meaningful education. I would recommend it.

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History of Taiwan

This audiobook opens my eyes and I could not stop listening to it. Even though the book is very comprehensive some of the information the author got is either manipulated, biased or missing. It is far from perfect. There is a lot of truth about Taiwan to be explored.

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