An introduction to the history of science

Abstract

Where is Taiwan? What are the languages spoken and what are the races there? Many people might fail to answer these questions about the small island next to China. You might, however, have heard of brands such as Giant, Asus and HTC, or the movie director Ang Lee, who shot his latest fi lm “Life of Pi” right in his own country. All these mentioned above are just from Taiwan, an island next to China with a land only one-eighth of Poland and a population of 23 million. According to historical records, the history of Taiwan basically can be divided into 5 periods, which are Dutch Rule (1624–1662), The Kingdom of Tungning (1661–1683), Qing Dynasty Rule (1683–1895), Japanese Rule (1895–1945), and Republic of China Rule (from 1945 till now). Long before Dutch Rule there were human activities and kingdom regimes in Taiwan. At that time people in Taiwan were Taiwanese aboriginals, whose languages were branches of Austronesian languages.