By George W. Carrington
Chinese Materials Center, San Francisco 1977, 308 pp., US$12.50.
Reviewed by Chen Pin
Although Taiwan (or Formosa) is one of the more fascinating places on the face of the earth, the literature concerned with the island's early days is pitifully small. History didn't exactly pass Taiwan by. But its touch was not continuous. The island often came to attention- as during the Dutch period of the 17th century - and then might drop from sight and mind for decades. The Chinese presumably were coming to Taiwan in the early centuries of the Christian era, but the island was regarded (by several names) as a mythical land to the east.
The author's bibliography of the usual sources adds up to only four pages. But he has consulted manuscripts and documents in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Out of these materials have emerged fresh data that give this book its freshness and special interest.
Colonel Carrington, a U.S. Marine Corps careerist who retired in 1968, comes by his interest in Taiwan, China and Asia naturally. He served in the Pacific during World War II, then returned to serve in Tientsin, Peiping, Tsingtao, Taipei, Korea and Vietnam. This volume is one of a new series from the Chinese Materials Center in San Francisco and was printed in the Republic of China.
This is the story, to quote the Preface, of "shipwrecked mariners, explorers for coal, imperialist business adventurers, investigating scientists, first diplomats, intervening naval gunboat captains, legitimate traders and proselytising missionaries. By nationality they were primarily from England, the United States, Canada and the states of the North German confederation."
An introductory chapter deals with the geography, history and people of Taiwan - or Formosa, as the author prefers to call it, and not without reason. As he observes, that is the name by which the foreigners about whom he is writing called it. It's a stirring story: aborigines, Chinese settlers, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Ming versus Ch'ing and even the approach of the French in the 19th century. No one could say that Taiwan is provincial, however much as it may look that way at times.
But what of Westerners in more modern times? That is the author's chosen topic. The Taiwan Straits was one of East Asia's graveyards of ships. In time of conflict, vessels might be enticed to their doom. To the British, the Chinese were barbarians, and the shoe fit the other foot just as well. Seamen died of ill treatment or were beheaded. As the Chinese said, if the British "are victorious, they would call these vessels warships and glorify the feat. If they should be defeated, they would call them merchant ships." Understanding was nil on both sides. When the Chinese emperor was taken to task, he blamed the local mandarins. The British used the aftermath of shipwrecks to justify their war against the Chinese. Neither nations nor bureaucrats have changed much.
Westerners were instrumental in opening up the coal mines of northern Taiwan. The steamship was on its way. Deposits close to the harbor of Keelung were important. In the end, the Celestial Empire came to understand this, too, and the island moved up a little in the estimation of a mainland which had accorded it studied neglect.
Not many Americans of today are aware that Taiwan might have wound up as an American state. There were several supporters of such a plan: Commodore Matthew Perry, Consul General Townsend Harris, Gorden Nye and William Robinet. Dr. Peter Parker, a medical missionary who was serving as the American commissioner to China in 1856, suggested to the Department of State that the United States take possession of Taiwan. That was the year for the revision of the Cushing treaty with China. Dr. Parker was given power to conduct negotiations. He came to advocate the occupation of Taiwan to compel China to live up to the treaty, to protect the island from European powers and to provide the United States with coaling stations.
In 1857, Parker urged the United States not to "shrink from the action which the interests of humanity, civilization, navigation and commerce impose upon it in relations to Taiwan." Trade was also mentioned by those who wanted the United States to take over Taiwan. One trader was involved in rice, sugar and camphor, all of them major crops for the island.
Never enthusiastic about such recommendations, the State Department delivered the coup degrace when President Buchanan succeeded President Pierce. Parker's successor, Minister Reed, was given explicit instructions repudiating Taiwan annexation ambitions.
Scientific investigators were the next to reach Taiwan: Robert Swinhoe, a botanist and ornithologist (the world-famed Swinhoe pheasant is named for him); Cuthbert Collingswood, a botanist; and Joseph Steere, an anthropologist. It was Swinhoe who chose the Tamsui site on the northwest coast of the island for the British consulate. That symbol of Britain remained for more than 100 years; the Chinese Communists brought about its close in return for upgrading British representation in Peiping to the level of an "embassy." Swinhoe recognized the value of trade in rice, indigo, sugar, jute, groundnut cakes, camphor, coal, grass fibers, wood, rattan, tea, rice paper pulp, pickled vegetables, small pulse, barley, wheat and sulfur.
Shipwrecks along the Taiwan coast and the treatment of survivors continued to a problem. Both the United States and Britain sent parties to the island to investigate reports that their seamen had been enslaved. In June of 1867, two U.S. warships arrived off the west coast to investigate the wreck of the Rover. (All of the crew members except one had been killed by aborigines, including 13 Americans.) The Americans put ashore a force of 43 marines and 135 naval officers and men. They had a hard time. The U.S. Navy reported:
"Savages, dressed in clouts and their bodies painted, were, by the aid of glasses, seen assembled in parties of 10 or 12 on the cleared hills about two miles distant. (They) displayed a strategy and courage equal to the North American Indians. Delivering their fire, they retreated without being seen by our men, who, charging on their coverts, frequently fell into ambuscades ... the savages covertly approached and fired upon the party. Lieut. Commander Mackensie (McKenzie) immediately placed himself at the head of the company commanded by Lieutenant Sands and daringly led a charge into the ambuscade. He fell mortally wounded by a musketball, and died, while being borne to the rear. Several of the officers and men experienced severe sunstrokes, the heat being intense; and as the command was generally exhausted in unavailing efforts to get at the enemy, Commander Belknap determined to return to the ships, which were reached at 4 p.m., after an exhausting march of six hours under a tropical sun.
"The experience demonstrated the inutility of such an expedition against a savage enemy in a wild country, by sailors unaccustomed to ambuscade and bush life. No troops could have exhibited more bravery, but the warfare was one to which sailors are not adapted. These considerations and the prostrated condition of his men decided Rear Admiral Bell to make no further attempt by again landing his force. They had already done all that was possible, by burning a number of native huts and in chasing the warriors through coverts of green jungle and green grass."
Missionaries came to Taiwan in the latter half of the 19th century (not counting the Dutch, whose religious efforts left only a few vague traces among the aborigines.) The great names are those of the Rev. William Campbell, who arrived in 1871, and the Rev. George Mackay, who came the next year. Mackay's name is perpetuated by the hospital bearing his name.
Japanese took over Taiwan in 1895 and stayed until 1945. But they had already intervened in the island in 1874 in the aftermath of two 1872 shipwrecks in which Ryukyuan crews were killed. China finally paid an indemnity and the Japanese withdrew.
This book may not be the last word on the subject of foreigners in Formosa. New materials are constantly being unearthed. The sample that Colonel Carrington offers whets appetites for more details on Taiwan's foreigners from the Dutch to the Americans.