嚴選好物推薦

PREFACE
FOREWORD
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

I  INTRODUCTION
II  TAIWAN UNDER THE DUTCH
III  INVASION FROM CHINA
IV  TAIWAN UNDER THE ZHENG
V  TAIWAN UNDER THE QING
VI  ASIA'S FIRST REPUBLIC
VII  TAIWAN UNDER THE JAPANESE
VIII  TAIWAN AFTER 1945
IX  THE LOST DECADE
X   EPILOGUE

GLOSSARY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

洪健昭寫台史　連戰：撥亂反正

　　中央通訊社董事長洪健昭的新書「A NEW HISTORY OF TAIWAN」今天正式發表，國民黨榮譽主席連戰肯定洪健昭「撥亂反正」，在新書中記錄台灣失落的10年，讓國際確切認識台灣。

　　洪健昭「A NEW HISTORY OF TAIWAN」下午在中央社舉行新書發表會，此書以史料為基礎強調台灣地位，與連戰祖父、連橫的「台灣通史」遙相呼應；連戰與教育部次長林聰明等人到場共襄盛舉，十分肯定「A NEWHISTORY OF TAIWAN」對台灣歷史的貢獻。
 
　　洪健昭表示，他撰寫新書的最大動力與啟發來自於連橫的「台灣通史」，此書最可貴之處在深受當時日本政府的高度認同；洪健昭自認是台灣人，又具備外語能力以及美國喬治城大學的歷史博士學位，自覺有責任完成英文版的台灣史。
 
　　連戰表示，洪健昭是他的台大學長，不僅學問非常扎實，尤其精通英、日語，從事新聞工作又長達50 年，也曾擔任中央社在約旦、華盛頓、東京、倫敦等國際重鎮的分社主任，加上他對歷史的濃厚興趣，完整以英文呈現台灣歷史。
 
　　連戰指出，洪健昭的「A NEW HISTORY OF TAIWAN」特別加入2000年之後到去年的5都選舉的台灣近況；連戰說，「有可能永遠沒有人寫這本書，就算有人寫，也可能是從錯誤、謬誤的觀點出發，洪健昭的新台灣史有撥亂反正的意涵」。
 
　　洪健昭把書中談及過去10年的章節命名為「失落的10年」，連戰認為，這正是兩岸關係有重大突破和發展的開始，記錄台灣進入轉捩點的關鍵時刻。

（中央社記者蔡欣樺2011年3月4日）

　　台灣由於地理位置特殊，兼具海洋性與國際性雙重優勢，自十七世紀以來，曾歷經荷據、明鄭、清朝、日據等時期，主權時有變動，文化發展多元。

　　本書作者洪健昭，學養豐富，他廣泛蒐集歷史資料，記錄許多台灣人仍不知道的台灣歷史，例如，台灣第一場獨立戰爭，是在西元一八九五年甲午戰爭後台灣將割讓給日本時，與日本人打的一場台灣建國戰爭，由丘逢甲幕後推動，台灣巡撫唐景崧擔任總統，並宣布獨立，可惜獨立建國十二天就結束。這段歷史無關統獨，卻是台灣人都應該知道的台灣史事。

　　以史料為依託，強調台灣的地位，有台灣地位論，與連橫《台灣通史》遙相呼應，本書見解獨到，資料豐富，是讓外國人了解台灣源流的英文版台灣史。

　　Taiwan, though close to China, played no part in Chinese history until the seventeenth century. There was sporadic Chinese emigration to the island, which the West used to call Formosa, in the earlier centuries, but otherwise the island had remained home almost exclusively to the aborigines.

　　The history of Taiwan began with a Dutch colonization effort in 1624. The island had remained a Dutch colony for 38 years before Cheng Ch’eng-kung, better known in the West as Koxinga, seized it as the base of his Ming irredentist movement against the Ch’ing or Manchu in 1662. Sincization of Taiwan started with massive Chinese emigration to the island. His son and grandson continued to rule Taiwan as a state until the Ch’ing conquered and annexed it as part of China in 1683.

　　Taiwan was made a province of Ch’ing China in 1887, more than two centuries after it had been annexed as a prefecture. Peking ceded the island and the Pescadores or Penghu to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.

　　Taiwan, Asia’s first republic, declared independence on May 23, 1895. The republic was short-lived, lasting only 12 days. No foreign powers recognized Taiwan. The republic army, however, fought the Japanese occupation force for months in the desperate war of independence.

　　During their half century of rule, the Japanese started Taiwan on the road to modernization. Their colonial rule was harsh but efficient, albeit their Japanization attempt failed. After Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies in 1945, Taiwan was restored to China.

　　Taiwan was made a province of China again on October 25, 1945. China’s reoccupation of Taiwan was a fiasco, however. The people of Taiwan rose against the corrupt Chinese provincial authorities on February 28, 1947. The massacre of people that followed so alienated Taiwanese that they considered independence as an alternative.