Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The Taiwan Republic
In May 1895 a short-lived republic was declared on Taiwan in an
attempt to stave off the impending Japanese colonial takeover of the
island. This “Republic of Taiwan” or “Republic of Formosa” was
headed by Tang Jingsong (Tang Ching-sung, 1841-1903), the former
Qing governor of the island. James Wheeler Davidson, an American
(and later Canadian) adventurer and journalist in Taiwan at the time,
was an eyewitness to the rise and fall of this republic. Many of his
accounts of it are priceless because much Chinese documentation of
the republic is no longer available. Davidson recorded, for example,
the English version of the republic's official declaration of indepen-
dence, which no longer exists in its Chinese original:
Official Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Formosa
The Japanese have affronted China by annexing our territory of For-
mosa, and the supplications of us, the People of Formosa, at the portals
of the Throne have been made in vain. We now learn that the Japanese
slaves are about to arrive.
If we suffer this, the land of our hearths and homes will become the
land of savages and barbarians, but if we do not suffer it, our condition
of comparative weakness will certainly not endure long. Frequent con-
ferences have been held with the Foreign Powers, who all aver that the
People of Formosa must establish their independence before the Powers
will assist them.
Now therefore we, the People of Formosa, are irrevocably resolved to
die before we will serve the enemy. And we have in Council determined
to convert the whole island of Formosa into a Republican State, and that
the administration of all our State affairs shall be organized and carried
on by the deliberations and decisions of Officers publicly elected by us
the People. But as in this enterprise there is needed, as well for the resis-
tance of Japanese aggression as for the organization of the new
administration, a man to have chief control, in whom authority shall
centre, and by whom the peace of our homesteads shall be assured, —
therefore, in view of the respect and admiration in which we have long
held the Governor and Commander-in-Chief Tang Ching Sung, we have
in Council determined to raise him to the position of President of the
Republic.
An official seal has been cut, and on the second day of the fifth
month, at the ssu hour [9 a.m. May 25], it will be publicly presented with
all respect by the notables and people of the whole of Formosa. At early
dawn on that day, all of us, notables and people, farmers and merchants,
artizans [sic] and tradesmen, must assemble at the Tuan Fang Meeting
