Saturday, November 18, 2006

Going Dutch

Went today to the place where Taiwan's main river mouths to the sea. Like the river the town is called Danshui, or is that Danshuei, or even Tamsui? All of the above: you see, there are three official dialects so three official ways of pronouncing every place name... and don't even ask me about the further havoc wreaked by two systems of romanization on top of that! No place I've been has the same name in Lonely Planet, my tourist map and the subway system. (The subway stop nearest Academia Sinica is spelled Kunyan or Kunyang on maps, but the voice announcement is for something more like Hwenyong.) The picture above is of the gate to what at least some people call Fuyou Temple, dedicated in 1796 to Matsu, goddess and protectress of those at sea.

The oldest building in Taiwan is in Danshui. It's not terribly old, and was built neither by Formosan Aborigines nor Chinese settlers. It's called Fort San Domingo, established in 1629 by the Spanish. The original wooden edifice was burnt down by Aborigines and its stone replacement was soon lost to the Dutch, who renamed it after Anthony Van Diemen (after whom Van Diemen's Land - Tasmania - was named, too). The present edifice dates to 1642. For two centuries controlled by Chinese authorities, the fort in 1868 became home to the British Consulate, only to get closed down by the occupying Japanese during WW2, passed on after the war to Australians for safekeeping, until they recognized the PRC... Lots of history here, more than just a few centuries can stably contain.

With aboriginal populations, European explorers and settlers from a mainland Taiwan seems a sort of sibling to 'merca and Austrairlia. No nation had a clear and uncontroversial beginning, certainly not this crop. In Taiwan you have dozens of indigenous peoples who arrived in several waves. Settlers from different and mutually unsympathetic parts of China (hence the dialects). Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch, British, 50 years as a Japanese colony, the KMT with the National Palace Museum in their hand luggage... Matsu, how have you kept this ship afloat?