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Taiwan

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   Location of Taiwan
   Enlarge
   Location of Taiwan

   Taiwan ( Traditional Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; Simplified Chinese: 台湾; Hanyu
   Pinyin: Táiwān; Wade-Giles: T'ai-wan; Taiwanese: Tâi-oân) is an island
   in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the
   territories administered by the Republic of China (ROC), a state whose
   effective area of administration consists of the island of Taiwan,
   Lanyu (Orchid Island) and Green Island in the Pacific off the Taiwan
   coast, the Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and Matsu off
   the southeast coast of the territories administered by the People's
   Republic of China (PRC).

   The main island of Taiwan, sometimes also referred to as Formosa (from
   Portuguese, meaning "graceful"), is located at 22°57′N 120°12′E, off
   the coast of the territories administered by the People's Republic of
   China, south of Japan and north of the Philippines. It is bounded to
   the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and
   the Luzon Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait and to the north by
   the East China Sea. The island is 394 kilometers (245 miles) long and
   144 kilometers (89 miles) wide and consists of steep mountains covered
   by tropical and subtropical vegetation.

   By the end of major fighting in the Chinese Civil War in 1950, the ROC
   had lost control of mainland China to the PRC. Since then, the ROC has
   been restricted to its present effective area of administration
   consisting of Taiwan and some neighboring islands. Today, the PRC and
   the ROC do not recognize each other, and the PRC considers all of the
   territories administered by the ROC as PRC territory, and vice versa.
   For more information on this dispute, see Political status of Taiwan.

History

Prehistory and early settlement

   Evidence of human settlement in Taiwan dates back thirty thousand
   years, although the first inhabitants of Taiwan may have been
   genetically distinct from any groups currently on the island. About
   four thousand years ago, ancestors of current Taiwanese aborigines
   settled in Taiwan. These aborigines are genetically related to Malay
   and Polynesians, and linguists classify their language as Austronesian.
   Han Chinese began settling in the Pescadores in the 1200s, but Taiwan's
   hostile tribes and its lack of the trade resources valued in that era
   rendered it unattractive to all but "occasional adventurers or
   fishermen engaging in barter" until the sixteenth century.

   Records from ancient China indicate that Han Chinese might have known
   of the existence of the main island of Taiwan since the Three Kingdoms
   period ( third century), having assigned offshore islands in the
   vicinity names like Greater and Minor Liuqiu ( Ryūkyū in Japanese),
   though none of these names have been definitively matched to the main
   island of Taiwan. It has been claimed but not verified that the Ming
   Dynasty admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) visited Taiwan between 1403 and
   1424.

   In 1544, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and dubbed
   it "Ilha Formosa", which means "Beautiful Island." The Portuguese made
   no attempt to colonize Taiwan. They were content with their trading
   posts in Kyūshū, Japan.

Dutch and Spanish rule

   In 1624, the Dutch East Indies Company, headquartered in Batavia, Java,
   established the first European-style government ever on the soil of
   Taiwan, and inaugurated the modern political history of Taiwan. They
   did not just collect taxes, but also tried to convert the native
   Formosans, who enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Dutch, and
   learned the Dutch language. Some aborigines still retain their Dutch
   Bibles even today. The records of the Dutch rule are well-preserved in
   a museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Documents there show that they
   even set up orphanages on Taiwan at that time (a rare occurrence in
   East Asia then). Today, their visible legacy in Taiwan is limited to a
   castle in Anping District of Tainan City. It was the Dutch who started
   importing on a large scale Chinese workers from China's Fujian province
   as laborers, many of whom became naturalized. The Dutch had its
   colonial capital at Tayoan City (source of modern name "Taiwan", and
   present day Anping). The Dutch military presence concentrated at a fort
   called Castle Zeelandia. The Dutch colonialists also used the
   aborigines to hunt the native Formosan Sika deer (Cervus nippon
   taioanus) that inhabited Taiwan, contributing to the eventual
   disappearance of a small subspecies in the wild. (A small population of
   the subspecies is being kept in captivity and currently being
   reintroduced into the Kenting National Park in southern Taiwan.) The
   pelt of the deer was shipped to Japan, from which the commodity
   continued its trip to Europe, the U.S., etc.

   The Spaniards occupied the northern part of Taiwan for seventeen years
   before finally being driven away by the Dutch. Today the only visible
   Spanish legacy is the reddish, solid-looking San Domingo Castle,
   (dubbed the "Red-Hair Castle" by Taiwanese) that was used by the
   British consulate until the United Kingdom severed ties with the KMT
   regime and its formal relationship with Taiwan.

   There was a time that the French occupied the group of islands in the
   Formosa Strait called "Pescadores" (Spanish meaning "fishermen"). A
   French admiral died there from some battle, and was buried there. His
   bones were unearthed and brought back to France in the 1960s after
   France severed ties with the KMT regime, and along with it any formal
   relationship with Taiwan.

Koxinga and Imperial Chinese rule

   Naval and troop forces of Southern Fujian defeated the Dutch in 1662,
   subsequently expelling the Dutch government and military from the
   island. They were led by Lord Koxinga (鄭成功, p: Zheng Chenggong), son of
   a Southern Fujian pirate-merchant and a Japanese samurai's daughter.
   Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga retreated to Taiwan as
   a self-styled Ming loyalist and established the Kingdom of Tungning
   (1662–1683). Koxinga established his capital at Tainan and he and his
   heirs, Zheng Jing (鄭經) who ruled from 1662-82 and his son Zheng
   Keshuang (鄭克塽), who served less than a year, continued to launch raids
   on the south-east coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty in
   an attempt to recover the mainland. Koxinga's attempt to solicit
   support from the Japanese Shogun was unsuccessful.

   In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by
   Admiral Shi Lang of Southern Fujian,the Qing Dynasty formally annexed
   Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. Cheng's
   followers were expatriated to the farthest reaches of the Qing Empire.
   The Qing Dynasty government wrestled with its Taiwan policy to reduce
   piracy and vagrancy in the area, which led to a series of edicts to
   manage migration and respect for aboriginal land rights. Migrants
   mostly of Southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan as renters of the
   large plots of aboriginal lands under contracts that usually involved
   marriage, while the border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands
   shifted eastward, with some aborigines 'Sinicizing' while others
   retreated into the mountains. The bulk of Taiwan's population today
   claim descent from these migrants. During this time, there were a
   number of conflicts involving Chinese from different regions of
   Southern Fujian, and between Southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.

   In 1887, the Qing government upgraded Taiwan's status from that of
   being a prefecture of Fujian to one of province itself, the twentieth
   in the country, with its capital at Taipei. The move was accompanied by
   a modernization drive that included the building of the first railroad
   and the beginning of a postal service in Taiwan.

Japanese rule

   The building currently known as the ROC Presidential Office was
   originally built as the Office of the Governor-General by the Japanese
   colonial government.
   Enlarge
   The building currently known as the ROC Presidential Office was
   originally built as the Office of the Governor-General by the Japanese
   colonial government.

   Japan also sought to claim sovereignty over Taiwan (known as Takasago
   Koku, or "country of High Sand," a complimentary term in Japanese)
   since 1592, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi undertook a policy of expansion and
   extending Japanese influence overseas. Korea, to the west, was invaded,
   but attempts to invade Taiwan turned out to be unsuccessful due mainly
   to endemic and epidemic diseases that had no cure at that time such as
   cholera and malaria, and fierce resistance by aborigines on the island.
   In 1609, the Tokugawa Shogunate sent Haruno Arima on an exploratory
   mission of the island. In 1616, Murayama Toan led an unsuccessful
   invasion of the island.

   In 1871, an Okinawan vessel shipwrecked on the southern tip of Taiwan
   and the crew of fifty-four were beheaded by the Paiwan aborigines. When
   Japan sought compensation from Qing China, the court rejected the
   demand on the ground that Taiwan was outside its jurisdiction. This
   open renunciation of sovereignty led to Japan's invasion of Taiwan. In
   1874, an expeditionary force of three thousand troops was sent to the
   island. There were about thirty Taiwanese and 543 Japanese casualties
   (twelve in battle and 531 by endemic diseases).

   Following its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), by
   signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Qing China ceded Taiwan and the
   Pescadores to Japan in perpetuity, on terms dictated by the latter.
   Inhabitants wishing to remain Chinese subjects were given a two-year
   grace period to sell their property and return to China. Very few
   Taiwanese took the offer.

   On May 25, 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the
   Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces
   entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on October
   21, 1895. This period of Japanese occupation was marked by suppression
   of local resistance movements by the Japanese, and the subjugation of
   the local populace into manual labor in various factories and
   plantations set up by the occupying force to produce exports to the
   Japanese mainland. Japan spent the first 10 years to eradicate the
   endemic diseases from Taiwan, setting up a public hospital for each
   chō, an Japanese administrative unit between the town and village. It
   also poured money and first-class expert labor into the island. Among
   those who worked to improve the condition of Taiwan was Nitobe Inazo.
   He and his, American wife, a Quaker, lived in Taiwan for two years, to
   improve the sugarcane quality of Taiwan. The first plantation scale
   sugar industry was thus established on Taiwan. Japanese also introduced
   the "Horaimai" into Taiwan, which was Japanese rice seeds planted in
   Taiwan's soil. The success came after years of research and
   experimentation. Some products were so good that they were submitted by
   the Taiwan governor to the emperor in Tokyo for the imperial family's
   consumption. Taiwan quickly became the jewel of the Yamato crown,
   yielding profits for the Japanese. Taiwan supplied the empire with
   rice, sugar, banana, pineapple, and high-class timber, hinoki, which
   was used by all the major Buddhist temples ( otera) and Shinto shrines
   ( jinja) in Japan. It was the first time that poor Japanese and Koreans
   had the chance to eat sugar. Before annexation of Taiwan, sugar in the
   form of snacks ( okashi) was for the nobles only.

   Despite the otherwise relatively friendly relationship between Japanese
   and Taiwanese in Taiwan, Japan had some lingering suspicion of
   Taiwanese as Chinese, and did not draft Taiwanese as soldiers before
   the war. On the other hand, Koreans were not only drafted, but even
   allowed to enter Shikan Gakko, the government-run officers' school.
   Some women from Taiwan, like their counterparts from the Japanese
   mainland and Korea, were forced to serve as "comfort women" (sex
   slaves) for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War.
   Taiwanese people were classified as second and third-class citizens and
   Chinese treated as pariahs. Resistance had to be put down and by 1920s,
   armed uprisings have largely been suppressed. However, resistance with
   non-violent means continued and flourished in intellectual circles such
   as the Taiwanese Cultural Association. Many famous Taiwanese writers
   emerged from these literary groups.

   Japan was forced to draft Taiwanese only after Pearl Harbour. However,
   Taiwanese proved themselves to be good soldiers, especially the
   aborigines. The dedication of these aboriginal soldiers ("Takasago
   Hei") towards the Japanese imperial armed forces is still celebrated by
   the Japanese veterans even today. After the Second World War, some
   soldiers stayed in Indonesia to fight the Independence War and were
   decorated by the Indonesian government as heroes. One of Admiral
   Yamamoto's personal pilots was a Taiwanese and some Taiwanese pilots
   even volunteered to become kamikaze. Around 1935, the Japanese began an
   island-wide assimilation project to integrate the island into the
   Japanese Empire. The person who guided the Japanese soldiers into the
   Taipei city in 1895, Ko Ken Ei, was appointed by the emperor as the
   first Taiwanese member of the Japanese House of Nobles, thus becoming a
   Japanese noble. Three other Taiwanese were subsequently appointed. By
   1945, just before the end of World War II, desperate plans were put in
   place to allow entry of Taiwanese into the Japanese Diet to make Taiwan
   an integral part of Japan proper.

   The signing of the Instrument of Surrender on August 15, 1945, put
   Taiwan under Allied occupation. General MacArthur then ordered the ROC
   troops into the island as the occupation force of Taiwan, pending final
   resolution of Taiwan's status internationally. On October 25, 1945, ROC
   troops representing the Allied Command accepted the formal surrender of
   Japanese military forces in Taihoku. The ensuing military occupation of
   Taiwan was however conducted on behalf of the "conqueror" and
   "principal occupying power," which was/is the United States. However,
   due to the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the
   Chinese Communists, the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty between Japan
   and the Allies stipulated the United States as the principal occupying
   power of Taiwan while not naming the recipient of Taiwan's sovereignty.
   Chiang Kai-Shek, President of the ROC, refused to accept this
   arrangement, and the details of the San Francisco Peace Treaty were
   kept secret from the Taiwanese populace. The PRC was excluded from this
   treaty signing ceremony since it was not a recognized state yet and
   because the PRC was the major force fighting against the U.S. during
   the Korean War.

   Supporters of Taiwanese independence claim that based on technicality,
   documents and treaties left the legal sovereignty of Taiwan ambiguous,
   and that the ruling KMT government of the ROC have merely exercised
   stewardship control over the island, as there are no international
   legal documents proving that the sovereignty of Taiwan has ever been
   transferred to China. The People's Republic of China, on its part, says
   that Taiwan's sovereignty was transferred to China under the terms of
   the Potsdam Declaration, which Japan necessarily accepted by
   surrendering to the Allies. Some but by no means all Pan-Blue
   supporters in Taiwan are of a similar opinion. See Political status of
   Taiwan for more information.

Kuomintang rule

   Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei.
   Enlarge
   Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei.

   The ROC administration, led by Chiang Kai-shek, announced October 25,
   1945, as "Taiwan Retrocession Day" (臺灣光復節). At first, they were greeted
   as liberators by the people of Taiwan. However, the ROC military
   administration on Taiwan under Chen Yi was generally unstable and
   corrupt; it seized property and set up government monopolies of many
   industries. These problems, compounded with hyperinflation, unrest due
   to the Chinese Civil War, and distrust due to political, cultural and
   linguistic differences between the Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese,
   quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new administration.
   This culminated in a series of severe clashes between the ROC
   administration and Taiwanese, in turn leading to the bloody 228
   incident and the reign of White Terror.

   In 1949, on losing the Chinese Civil War to the CPC, the KMT retreated
   from Mainland China and moved the ROC government to Taipei, Taiwan's
   largest city, while continuing to claim sovereignty over all of China
   and Greater Mongolia. On the mainland, the Communists established the
   PRC, claiming to be the sole representative of China including Taiwan
   and portraying the ROC government on Taiwan as an illegitimate entity.
   Some 1.3 million refugees from Mainland China, consisting mainly of
   soldiers, KMT party members, and most importantly the intellectual and
   business elites from the mainland, arrived in Taiwan around that time.
   In addition, as part of its retreat to Taiwan, the KMT brought with
   them literally the entire gold reserve and foreign currency reserve of
   mainland China. This unprecedented influx of human and monetary capital
   laid the foundation for Taiwan's later dramatic economic development.
   From this period on, Taiwan was governed by a party-state dictatorship,
   with the KMT as the ruling party. Military rule continued and little to
   no distinction was made between the government and the party, with
   public property, government property, and party property being
   interchangeable. Government workers and party members were
   indistinguishable, with government workers, such as teachers, required
   to become KMT members, and party workers paid salaries and promised
   retirement benefits along the lines of government employees. In
   addition all other parties were outlawed, and political opponents were
   persecuted, incarcerated, and executed.

   Taiwan remained under martial law and one-party rule, under the name of
   the " Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist
   Rebellion" (動員戡亂時期臨時條款), from 1948 to 1987, when Presidents Chiang
   Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui gradually liberalized and democratized the
   system.

Geography

   The terrain of Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east but gradually
   changes to gently sloping plains in the west. Penghu Islands (the
   Pescadores) are to the west of Taiwan (Satellite photo by NASA).
   Enlarge
   The terrain of Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east but gradually
   changes to gently sloping plains in the west. Penghu Islands (the
   Pescadores) are to the west of Taiwan (Satellite photo by NASA).

   The island of Taiwan lies some 200 kilometers off the southeastern
   coast of China, across the Taiwan Strait, and has an area of 35,801
   square kilometers (13,823 square miles). The East China Sea lies to the
   north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the
   south and the South China Sea to the southwest. The island is
   characterized by the contrast between the eastern two-thirds,
   consisting mostly of rugged mountains running in five ranges from the
   northern to the southern tip of the island, and the flat to gently
   rolling plains in the west that are also home to most of Taiwan's
   population. Taiwan's highest point is the Yu Shan at 3,952 meters, and
   there are five other peaks over 3,500 meters. This makes it the world's
   seventh-highest island

   The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato
   seen in a south-to-north direction, and therefore, Taiwanese people,
   especially the Min-nan division, often call themselves "children of the
   Sweet Potato". There are also other interpretations of the island
   shape, one of which is a whale in the ocean (the Pacific Ocean) if
   viewed in a west-to-east direction, which is a common orientation in
   ancient maps, plotted either by Western explorers or the Ching Dynasty.

   Taiwan's climate is marine tropical. The Northern part of the island
   has a rainy season that lasts from January to late March during the
   southwest monsoon, and also experiences meiyu in May. The entire island
   succumbs to hot humid weather from June until September, while October
   to December are arguably the most pleasant times of year. The middle
   and southern parts of the island do not have an extended monsoon season
   during the winter months, but can experience several weeks of rain,
   especially during and after Lunar New Year. Natural hazards such as
   typhoons and earthquakes are common in the region.

   Taiwan is a centre of bird endemism; see Endemic birds of Taiwan for
   further information.

Environment and pollution

   With its high population density and many factories, some areas in
   Taiwan suffer from heavy pollution. Most notable are the southern
   suburbs of Taipei and the eastern stretch from Tainan to Lin Yuan,
   south of Kaohsiung. In the past, Taipei suffered from extensive vehicle
   and factory air pollution, but with mandatory use of unleaded gasoline
   and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the air
   quality of Taiwan has improved dramatically. The motor scooters which
   are ubiquitous in Taiwan, especially older or cheaper two-stroke
   versions, also contribute disproportionately to air pollution in
   Taiwan.

   Land and soil pollution has decreased as Taiwanese industry moves out
   of heavy industry; however, several toxic sites left mainly by foreign
   companies continue to pose challenges. Solid waste disposal has become
   less of a problem as a nation-wide recycling movement has taken hold,
   especially with support from Buddhist charity organizations.

   Water pollution remains a problematic issue. Nearly 90% of sewage waste
   in Taiwan is dumped into waterways untreated. Several rivers are so
   heavily polluted that it would take billions of dollars to clean them.

Society

Ethnic groups

   Bunun dancer in traditional aboriginal dress.
   Enlarge
   Bunun dancer in traditional aboriginal dress.

   The ROC's population was estimated in 2005 at 22.9 million, most of
   whom are on Taiwan. About 98% of the population is of Han Chinese
   ethnicity. Of these, 86% are descendants of early Han immigrants known
   as "native Taiwanese" (Chinese: 本省人; pinyin: Bensheng ren; literally
   "home-province person"). This group contains two subgroups: the
   Southern Fujianese or "Hokkien" or "Min-nan" (70% of the total
   population), who migrated from the coastal Southern Fujian (Min-nan)
   region in the southeast of Mainland China; and the Hakka (15% of the
   total population), who originally migrated south to Guangdong, its
   surrounding areas and Taiwan, intermarrying extensively with Taiwanese
   aborigines. The remaining 12% of Han Chinese are known as Mainlanders
   (Chinese: 外省人; pinyin: Waisheng ren; literally "external-province
   person") and are composed of and descend from immigrants who arrived
   after the Second World War. This group also includes those who fled
   mainland China in 1949 following the Nationalist defeat in the Chinese
   Civil War.

   Dalu ren (大陸人) refers to residents of mainland China. This group
   excludes almost all Taiwanese, including the Mainlanders, except recent
   immigrants from mainland China, such as those made ROC citizens through
   marriage. It also excludes foreign brides from Vietnam, Indonesia,
   Thailand and the Philippines or foreign grooms of which a greater
   number come from Western countries. One in seven marriages now involves
   a partner from another country. As Taiwan's birthrate is among the
   lowest in the world, this contingent is playing an increasingly
   important role in changing Taiwan's demographic makeup. Transnational
   marriages now account for one out of six births.

   The other 2% of Taiwan's population, numbering about 458,000, are
   listed as the Taiwanese aborigines (Chinese: 原住民; pinyin: yuánzhùmín;
   literally "original inhabitants"), divided into 12 major groups: Ami,
   Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiyat, Tao (Yami), Thao,
   Kavalan and Taroko.

Languages

   About 80% of the people in Taiwan belong to the Holo (河洛) or Hoklo (福佬)
   ethnic group and speak both Standard Mandarin (officially recognized by
   the ROC as the National Dialect) and Taiwanese (a variant of the Min
   Nan dialect spoken in Fujian province). Mandarin is the primary
   language of instruction in schools; however, most spoken media is split
   between Mandarin and Taiwanese. The Hakka (客家), about 10% of the
   population, have a distinct Hakka dialect. Aboriginal minority groups
   still speak their native languages, although most also speak Mandarin.
   English is a common second language, with many large private schools
   such as Hess providing English instruction. English also features on
   several of Taiwan's education exams.

   Although Mandarin is still the language of instruction in schools and
   dominates television and radio, non-Mandarin dialects have undergone a
   revival in public life in Taiwan. A large fraction of the populace
   speak the Taiwanese dialect, a variant of Min nan spoken in Fujian,
   China, and a majority understand it. Many also speak Hakka. People
   educated during the Japanese period of 1900 to 1945 used Japanese as
   the medium of instruction. Some in the older generations only speak the
   Japanese they learned at school and the Taiwanese they spoke at home
   and are unable to communicate with many in the modern generations who
   only speak Mandarin.

   Most aboriginal groups in Taiwan have their own languages which, unlike
   Taiwanese or Hakka, do not belong to the Chinese language family, but
   rather to the Austronesian language family. Their lingua franca is
   Japanese, incidentally.

   The national phonetic system of the ROC is Zhuyin Fuhao ( Traditional
   Chinese: 注音符號; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhùyīn Fúhào; Wade-Giles: Chu-yin fu-hao),
   or "Symbols for Annotating Sounds", often abbreviated as Zhuyin, or
   known as Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) after the first four letters of this phonemic
   alphabet. It is used for teaching the Chinese languages, especially
   Standard Mandarin, to people learning to read, write, and speak
   Mandarin.

   The romanization of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan is inconsistent.
   Although the national government officially adopted Tongyong Pinyin in
   2002, it allowed local governments to make their own choices. Taipei,
   Taiwan's largest city, has adopted Hanyu Pinyin, replacing earlier
   signage, most of which had been in a bastardized version of Wade-Giles.
   Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second-largest city, has adopted Tongyong.
   Elsewhere in Taiwan, signs tend to be in a mixture of systems, with the
   most common overall being MPS2, which was official before the adoption
   of Tongyong Pinyin. Because romanization is not taught in Taiwan
   schools and there has been little political will to ensure that it is
   implemented correctly, romanization errors are common throughout
   Taiwan; at present the area with the fewest errors on official signage
   is Taipei. As the Pan-Blue bloc has largely aligned itself behind Hanyu
   Pinyin and the Pan-Green bloc has largely backed Tongyong Pinyin,
   Pan-Blue victories in the 2005 county elections are likely to result in
   an expansion of the use of Hanyu Pinyin, especially in northern and
   central Taiwan.

   Most people in Taiwan have their names romanized using a modified
   version of Wade-Giles. This, however, is generally not out of personal
   preference but rather a tendency to use the system that most reference
   materials in Taiwan have employed to date.

Religion

   Over 93% of Taiwanese are adherents of a combination of Buddhism,
   Confucianism, and Taoism; 4.5% are adherents of Christianity, which
   includes Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and other non-denominational
   Christian groups; and 2.5% are adherents of other religions, such as
   Islam and Judaism.

   Confucianism is a philosophy that deals with secular moral ethics, and
   serves as the foundation of both Chinese and Taiwanese culture. The
   majority of Taiwanese and Chinese usually combine the secular moral
   teachings of Confucianism with whatever religions they are affiliated
   with.

   One especially important goddess for Taiwanese people is Matsu, who
   symbolizes the seafaring spirit of Taiwan's ancestors from Fujian and
   Guangdong.

Culture

   Taiwan's mainstream culture is primarily derived from traditional
   Chinese culture, with significant influences also from Japanese and
   American cultures, especially in the areas of politics and
   architecture. Fine arts, folk traditions, and popular culture embody
   traditional and modern Asian and Western motifs.

   After the retreat to Taiwan, the Nationalists took steps to preserve
   traditional Chinese culture and suppress the local Taiwanese culture.
   The government launched a program promoting Chinese calligraphy,
   traditional Chinese painting, folk art, and Chinese opera.

   Since the Taiwan localization movement of the 1990s, Taiwan's cultural
   identity has been allowed greater expression. Identity politics, along
   with the over one hundred years of political separation from mainland
   China, half of which were under Japanese colonial rule, has led to
   distinct traditions in many areas, including cuisine, opera, and music.

   The status of Taiwanese culture is a subject of debate. Along with the
   political status of Taiwan, it is disputed whether Taiwanese culture is
   a segment of Chinese culture (due to the Han ethnicity and a shared
   language and traditional customs with mainland Chinese) or a distinct
   culture separate from Chinese culture (due to the long period of recent
   political separation and the past colonization of Taiwan). Speaking
   Taiwanese under the localization movement has become an emblem of
   Taiwanese identity.
   National Palace Museum, in Taipei City
   Enlarge
   National Palace Museum, in Taipei City

   One of Taiwan's greatest attractions is the National Palace Museum,
   which houses more than 650,000 pieces of Chinese bronze, jade,
   calligraphy, painting and porcelain. The KMT moved this collection from
   the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1949 when it fled to Taiwan. The
   collection, estimated to be one-tenth of China's cultural treasures, is
   so extensive that only 1% is on display at any time.

   Popular sports in Taiwan include basketball and baseball. Cheerleading
   performances and billiards are quite fashionable. Badminton is also
   common.

   Karaoke, drawn from contemporary Japanese culture, is extremely popular
   in Taiwan, where it is known as KTV. Small soundproof rooms containing
   sofas and a huge TV screen can be hired out, and friends take it in
   turns to sing songs.

   Taiwan has a high density of 24-hour convenience stores, which in
   addition to the usual services, provide services on behalf of financial
   institutions or government agencies such as collection of parking fees,
   utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments.

   Taiwanese culture also has influenced the West: bubble tea and milk tea
   are popular drinks readily available around city centers in Europe and
   North America. Ang Lee is the famous Taiwanese movie director of
   Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and
   Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain.

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