The Dutch occupation of Taiwan was partial, brief and ended 342 years ago. However, this period in the island's history still fascinates historians, and physical reminders of the era—most notably the ruins of two fortresses in the southern city of Tainan—continue to delight travelers.
Tourists wishing to explore Taiwan's Dutch heritage have a new, 271-page guidebook to assist and inform them during their travels. “The Real Taiwan and the Dutch” is a comprehensive resource featuring hundreds of color photos, addresses and phone numbers of places to stay and eat, plus global-positioning-system coordinates for dozens of hard-to-reach points of interest.
The book differs from other Taiwan travel guides in two important respects. Firstly, its main author, Menno Goedhart, is a full-time diplomat (the book's subtitle is “Traveling Notes from the Netherlands Representative”). He has led the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office—the agency in Taipei that handles relations between Taipei and the Hague in the absence of formal diplomatic ties—since 2002.
Goedhart says that before he was asked to head the NTIO, he was not aware of the depth and variety of Dutch influences on Taiwan.
“At school nobody spoke about the Dutch in Taiwan, but when preparing for my job here, I started to learn that the Dutch presence was not irrelevant, and was even of considerable importance for Taiwan,” he recalls.
“Even then, I could not imagine what I would find,” Goedhart continues. “There is much more Dutch heritage in Taiwan than I ever expected. And I did not find everything, for sure—that’s why I will stay in Taiwan after I retire. It is my ambition to register all the Dutch heritage in a more academic way, and put it in official heritage databases in the Netherlands and Taiwan.”
“The Real Taiwan and the Dutch” does not describe every corner of the ROC. Rather, it focuses on those places where the Dutch had significant interactions with Taiwan's inhabitants.
As anyone who has picked up a book about Taiwan's history knows, the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC)—a trading enterprise with its own fleet and army—established a colony in what is now Tainan, in southwestern Taiwan, in 1624. What is less well known is that the VOC had earlier visited the Penghu Islands, an archipelago midway between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, and that VOC personnel explored the east coast, and established outposts in Keelung and Danshui in the north.
Goedhart and his co-author, Cheryl Robbins, initially intended to write about every part of Taiwan. “We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find enough information to fill its pages,” says Robbins, an American. “But, as we started researching, we found the opposite to be true. So many people came forward with information and stories. So, we decided that we had better limit the book to six counties.”
Hualien, Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi and Penghu get a chapter each. The rest of Taiwan is dealt with in a section entitled “Other Places of Interest.”
“Most of the places in this book can be reached by the average person of average fitness or even people traveling with children,” says Robbins. “The intent of the book is to encourage people to go off the beaten path and discover some really interesting and beautiful places.”
Goedhart and Robbins first met when the latter was working as a reporter for Taiwan News, one of Taiwan's English-language newspapers.
Robbins interviewed Goedhart several times. “During those interviews, we discovered that we had a mutual interest in and concern for indigenous culture,” recalls Robbins. “About three years ago, he approached me about working with him to complete a book on his travel experiences around Taiwan, focusing on indigenous culture and Dutch heritage.”
During the course of researching the book, Goedhart—who like many foreigners residing in Taiwan has a Mandarin name, Hu Hao-de—acquired two aboriginal names. The Tsou tribe that inhabits the Alishan area call him Meno Voyu, while the Rukai made him an honorary chieftain called Ama Daganau.
“It is incredible having become a real close friend of the Tsou, a chieftain of the Rukai and an honorary citizen of Tainan. It indicates something about the intensity of my trips … making such good friends and forever!” says the diplomat.
“We started the research and writing without knowing which company would want to publish it,” explains Robbins. “As we visited places, we attracted media attention. Several Chinese-language newspapers reported on Mr. Goedhart's efforts to complete the book.”
Among those who read press reports about the diplomat's travels was the editor-in-chief of Taiwan Interminds Publishing Inc. Last month, the company simultaneously published English and Chinese-language versions of the book. There are no plans for a Dutch-language edition. The English-language version will be sold in the Netherlands and also through the Internet.
“Dutch people who have an interest in traveling usually speak good English,” notes Mirjam Gelinck, marketing manager at VNC Asia Travel, a Dutch travel agency that has been sending tourists to Taiwan since the late 1970s.
Gelinck says she “can’t wait to read” the book. “Of course, it covers a part of our history we cannot be too proud of, but it fits in the time of the VOC and it sure is interesting to the Dutch to read about that part of our history. We are such a small nation—smaller than Taiwan—and to us it is amazing that our forefathers traveled around the world looking for possibilities to expand.”
Gelinck thinks the information about homestays will be particularly useful as, she says, “Dutch travelers like to travel by themselves, rent a car and stay in small local hotels or B&Bs, instead of using luxury hotels and tour buses.”
“The Real Taiwan and the Dutch” is likely to meet the needs of such tourists. There are clear driving instructions, but almost nothing about public transportation.
Asked which discovery surprised him the most during his travels, Goedhart answers, “It's difficult to say as there's so much. Maybe the rediscovery of the third Dutch fort, Fort Vlissingen, or the story of how a 16th-century Ma Zu statue was saved from flooding by Dutch soldiers living in that fort.”
Nothing remains of Fort Vlissingen but Goedhart believes he has identified the precise spot in Haomeili, in the southwestern corner of Chiayi County, where it once stood. In a temple nearby there is a effigy of Ma Zu, the folk goddess of the sea. It is said to be one of the oldest icons of that deity anywhere in Taiwan—and Goedhart's research indicates it resided for a time inside the Dutch fort.
“Did you know—I did not—that Chiayi City started around a Dutch-built well?” asks the diplomat.
Robbins was equally amazed. “For me, the most surprising discovery was just how much of Taiwan the Dutch explored. I think many people have heard about the Dutch forts in Tainan and in Danshui and Keelung. But the Dutch also traveled extensively along the east coast,” she says. “There are also a lot of anecdotal tales of [Taiwanese] people who claim to have Dutch ancestors in their family tree, something which seems to inspire a lot of pride.”
Goedhart will step down from his post this August, but he has no plans to leave Taiwan. After retiring he and his wife will base themselves in Xinhua, about half an hour's drive inland from Tainan.
“We were looking for an apartment in Tainan, because I wished to live there close to the Dutch history. Someone showed us a house. It was outside Xinhua, amidst the pineapple fields, and we really fell in love with that house,” says Goedhart.
“It is a perfect location for working on history and for staying in touch with the Rukai and Tsou tribes,” he explains. “Moreover, it is in the heart of Siraya territory and the Siraya had probably the most intense interactions with the Dutch of any tribe.”
—Steven Crook is a free-lance writer based in Tainan.
Copyright © 2010 by Steven Crook
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