Joel’s Photo from Asia 3
by Joel Martin ~ May 3rd, 2007. Filed under: Business, China, Cultural, Education, Learning, Travel.
One of the historic sites I toured was the Chiang Kei-shek Memorial. Here are some of my favorite photos of this and other historic sites in Taipei. There is cultural info on Taiwan below but I encourage you to go online and discover for yourself the wealth of information available about the history of this technology center.
Background on Taiwan: “Taiwan is located between the Philippines and Japan, 100 miles off the coast of China. It is roughly the size of the Netherlands and the state of West Virginia, USA. A number of smaller, nearby islands have had historic association with Taiwan, including the Pescadores, Green Island, Orchid Island, and Shiao LiuChiu.
About 15% of Taiwan’s residents are refugees from the mainland who came over with the KMT in 1945-1949 and their Taiwanborn descendants. The rest of the population are called ‘native Taiwanese’, who are the descendants of the settlers who arrived 350 or more years ago who intermarried with the Malay-Polynesian indigenous population. About 70% are ‘Minnan’ and speak the ‘Hoklo’ language. Another 12-15% are descended from Hakka immigrants and speak the ‘Hakka’ language. Approximately 1.8 percent of the people are Indigenous people of Malay-Polynesian descent; there are approximately ten tribes with distinct languages and cultures.
Throughout 400 years of history, Taiwan has been occupied by the Dutch, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. Although Chinese culture has exerted a considerable influence on local traditions, Japanese and Western culture have as well. There are also some uniquely Taiwanese aspects of local culture, such as opera, folk music, literature and film.”
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