Original Sin on the Island Paradise? Qing Taiwan’s colonial history in comparative perspective

This paper argues that narratives of Taiwan’s colonial experience promoted by the DPP regime between 2000 and 2008 and the version endorsed by the communist regime on the mainland both share a reluctance to recognize the status of China itself as a colonizing power, or (as in the case of Taiwan) of Chinese settlers as colonizers. While this article does not elaborate at great length as to how ‘Greater China’ might be integrated into comparative analyses of colonialism and imperialism, it reviews some of the existing literature (particularly Teng 2004), suggesting points of comparison that may merit further exploration. The discussion then turns to other recent work on Taiwan’s history, showing how the typical periodization of Taiwan studies, with its assumption that colonialism arrived on the island in 1895 with the invading Japanese, distorts narratives of the Taiwanese past. Some reference is also made to how exhibitions in Taiwanese historical and anthropological museums have been implicated in attempts over recent years to construct a narrative of multicultural ‘Taiwaneseness’. The article concludes with a discussion both of the reasons for this occlusion of Taiwan’s colonial past, and of the wider implications of such a posture of denial for Chinese identities on Taiwan and the mainland.