Mainland Chinese began to come to Taiwan in the 12th century or even earlier. But it was not until the 1600s that large-scale immigration began. The first big influx was in Dutch times (1624-1661). From 1661 to 1683, the island was ruled by Ming loyalist Cheng Ch'eng-kung (Koxinga) and his descendants and the flow of settlers from the mainland increased. There was no cessation when Cheng's grandson surrendered to the Ch'ing dynasty and Taiwan was incorporated into Fukien province.
Most of the first immigrants were from Fukien and Kwangtung. A census of the early 19th century showed 82 per cent of the Taiwan population was from Fukien and 13 per cent from Kwangtung. At that time the Fukienese numbered 2½ million and the Cantonese 400,000. Only about 150,000 persons came from other parts of China.
Fukienese made up four groups according to their dialects and the districts from which they came. The Anchi and Tungan people settled in the northwest, the Sanpa group along the west coast and the Fukienese from Changchow in the south and central portion of the western plain. Cantonese came from Chaochow, Waichow and Chaiying. Chaochow people settled in central Taiwan and Waichow immigrants in the northwest. The Chaiying people were Hakkas who had moved into Kwangtung from the north and were not considered to be Cantonese. They settled mostly in the foothills from the north to the central part of Taiwan. After their centuries of mainland wanderings, the Hakkas were glad to find a permanent home and came in large numbers. About a third of the Hakkas of Kwangtung migrated to Taiwan within the course of a century.
Almost all of these mainland immigrants were farmers who grew rice and some tea. They organized typical Chinese settlements and built Chinese-style houses. They also brought Chinese institutions with them. Reverence for ancestors was more important than organized religion. Sizable tracts of land were given over to burial mounds that today are largely confined to hillsides. The family unit was all-important and still remains so in rural Taiwan. Each generation had its own part of the living quarters, but meals were prepared in a common kitchen and eaten together.
Cheng Ch'eng-kung lost no time eradicating the small Dutch influence. He encouraged schools and supported Chinese laws and customs. At Tainan, where the Dutch had their capital, he built the island's first Confucian temple. Hoping to realize his dream of driving out the Manchus and restoring the Ming dynasty, he organized and drilled strong military forces. He built fortifications for defense. The Manchus feared him and his influence with the coastal peoples of Fukien and Kwangtung. A 10-mile-wide no-man's land was decreed by the Ch'ing dynasty along the Straits of Taiwan and the people were compelled to move inland for fear they would help Cheng in an invasion attempt. Such tactics only persuaded more people to emigrate to Taiwan.
Agriculture was confined to southern Taiwan in Cheng's time. Official farms were those on land that had been sequestered from the Dutch. Semi-official farms were owned by Cheng's henchmen and supporters. The owner paid taxes and derived rents from tenants. Cheng Ch'eng-kung also devised a system of farming by the military. Soldiers worked the land in their spare time and thus supported themselves. At one time about 40 such farms were operating. A poll tax was collected from every person after the age of 10. Aborigines paid in deerskins and the annual collections ranged from 10,000 to 50,000 skins.
Cheng followed the Dutch example in promoting trade. Sugar continued to be an important export. Tile was made. Salt fields were established in the south. Shipbuilding was started. Principal trading partners were the Philippines, Japan and the Ryukus. Cheng also looked south to the Philippines for tribute. When Chinese there were massacred, he started to organize a punitive expedition only to sicken and die in 1662 at the age of 39. Had he lived another 10 or 20 years, the history of the Far East might have been changed drastically.
Progress continued under Cheng's son, but the dream of expansion and of returning the Mings to the throne died with the father. A year after Cheng's grandson became ruler, Ch'ing forces attacked Penghu (the Pescadores ) and Taiwan. The Manchu period of more than 200 years began for China's largest island.
Some Manchu officials suggested the abandonment of Taiwan as too wild and unproductive. Their advice was disregarded. The promise of Taiwan's future could already be seen. The official, semi-official and military farms gave way to private ownership and the area of cultivation moved steadily northward.
New owners got their land from the Ch'ing dynasty or the aborigines. As new immigrants moved in from the mainland, they tended to become tenants. Some landlords acquired thousands of acres of land and thousands of tenants. By 1843, land was paid for in gold rather than in kind; it had become a commodity. Rice was the dominant crop. The Ch'ing dynasty emphasized irrigation but the works were private instead of the public installations of Cheng Ch'eng-kung's rule. The Dutch had introduced the water buffalo from India and this beast became the principal draft animal of Taiwan. Even now, the process of replacing the big cows with power tillers is proceeding with considerable cultural lag. Taiwan farmers have an affection for their animals and consider them a part of the family. Beef consumption is still almost nil in rural areas.
Camphor was an important 19th century product. Because the trees are located in foothill and mountain areas, exploitation brought the Hakka camphor workers and the aborigines into conflict. Camphor was used as raw material for celluloid in the mid-19th century and demand increased. Cheaper synthetic camphor has now virtually doomed the industry.
Bamboo flourishes in Taiwan and early became an economic sideline of importance. The versatility of this grass is such that its uses number more than 600 - everything from inclusion of the succulent shoots in cookery to pipelines and furniture. American and Japanese processors are turning to Taiwan for a cheap source of bamboo.
Taiwan rice cultivation followed mainland patterns. The aborigines had scratched out a living by hunting and a little subsistence farming. The Chinese brought irrigation and paddy cultivation. Plots were small and irregular in imitation of the mainland pattern. Treadmills were used to raise water from one field to another. Reservoirs were constructed and water stored for use in the dry reason. Terracing added to the limited supply of land. The island's subtropical climate made two rice crops possible everywhere on the island plus a number of auxiliary crops.
Aborigines and early Dutch settlers seem not to have been aware of Taiwan's excellent prospects for tea. Presumably the plants were brought from the mainland. The very name of the tea shrub, thea, is from the Fukienese dialect. The commercial growing of tea did not begin until the 19th century. There were two tea plantations southeast of Taipei by 1850. Production and trade grew sharply in the 1860s and 70s. As with camphor, there was encroachment on the aborigines. Tea grows best in the light sandy loam of hillsides and planters sought elevations above the western plain in areas where the aborigines had been pushed by the rice growers.
In former times, four or five thousand tea workers were brought from Amoy and Foochow to carry out the processing. Even earlier, the tea was shipped to Amoy and Foochow for processing and transshipment to world markets.
Farm settlements of the Ch'ing dynasty period fell into two Chinese patterns: the dispersed and the cluster of houses or village. The dispersed style was identified with the north and the clusters with the south. Where houses were separated, they were enclosed by bamboo plantings and connected by the dividing ridges of the paddy fields. South of the Choshui River the village system dominates. Clusters of houses are about half a mile apart. The villages may be screened by bamboo. Houses are smaller than in the north. Each house - accommodating from one to three families - is fenced in. The paths are of stone. Some settlements along rivers or canals are linear, sometimes separated by bamboo or hedges. These cluster villages are similar to those of South China.
Several realistic factors led to the dispersed dwellings of the north and compact settlements of the south. The first Chinese immigrants landed in the south and came into conflict with the aborigines, who then were headhunters. The aborigines were slowly forced back into the mountains but often raided the Chinese settlements on the plain. The Chinese lived close together in their own defense. There were few aborigines in the north and defense was not required. In northern foothill areas where the aborigines did constitute a threat, houses were built in groups.
Summer rainfall and winter drought are common to the south, so villages were commonly situated around or close to a source of water supply. Rainfall is more evenly distributed in the north and it is less important to be close to a river, spring or well.
The militia settlements of Cheng Ch'eng-kung were in the south and probably encouraged a trend toward the village system. After the Dutch period, the followers of Cheng received large tracts of land in undeveloped northern Taiwan. The owners built houses on this land and tented them to tenant farmers. These structures were dispersed.
Possibly the most persuasive reason in favor of the village plan was its popularity in South China. That was the way most of the immigrants had lived on the mainland and they moved their institutions to Taiwan. As northern Taiwan was developed, some of these patterns began to break down.
Early Chinese buildings resembled those of Fukien and Kwangtung. Those of the Fukien style were more numerous and were solid and tended to heavy lines and curves. Kwangtung structures were graceful and with straighter lines. Fukien pillars were rounded and made of wood or stone. The Kwangtung pillar was of stone and more angular. Fukien roofs had red tile roofs; the tiles of Kwangtung were blue.
Farm houses were ordinarily built of sun-dried bricks and roofed with tile. The main building was elevated and flanked by two wings. This U-shape enclosed a courtyard. Windows were narrow. Bamboo grove screens were common. Early urban houses were oblong and built close together. The front part of the building was of two stories; the first Boor was used for business purposes and the second floor as a residence. Additional ground-floor rooms were often located to the rear, perhaps behind a courtyard. These rooms also were used for residential purposes. Sometimes the second floor was set back in a balcony effect. Often the upper floor was in the nature of garret with a very low ceiling and was reached by a ladder or very steep stairs.
The business sections of most Taiwan cities and towns were built with arcades to protect shoppers from sun and rain. The shops opened on the arcades. Until recently, the space of the arcades themselves was intensively used by hawkers and food stall operators. Often the space for walking was only wide enough for one person. As on the Chinese mainland, it was considered wasteful to use a property only for residential purposes. The space should be put to use for earning money, if that is at all possible. Even today Taiwan residential districts abound in small businesses operating on the ground floor of apartment buildings.
Chinese have been building temples in Taiwan since the 17th century. They are of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist persuasions. A number of large ones are found in principal cities. Some of the most attractive are in remote foothill locations. They still serve as hostels for the pilgrim or traveler.
Much of Taiwan's early transportation was by raft on water and sedan chair on land. The rafts were made of bamboo and were more than 18 feet long by 6 feet wide. Large bamboos were lashed together. In the middle was built a box-like platform which could be used for storing goods and as a deck. The raft itself was virtually submerged but the passengers stayed above the water on the platform. Mainland rafts were smaller because the bamboo did not grow as big as on Taiwan. Lack of roads prevented wheeled transport in early times. Average people walked and the rich and officials were carried along the trails in sedan chairs. Roads were built fairly early in sugar-growing districts to expedite collection of the cane by ox carts.
Modernization and industrial development was rapid toward the end of the first Chinese period. Then Taiwan was ceded to the Japanese in 1895 as a spoil of war and the island entered upon a 50-year period of exploitation to meet the food and raw material needs of the Japanese. Aspects of Japanese culture were forced upon the Chinese people. The Japanese period ended less than a quarter of a century ago and Japanese cultural influences are still to be found. These will be the subject of a further article.