I finished this book during my Taiwan trip, and it drew a very vivid picture of what happened in Taiwan during 1977 - 2007, including major political movements and normal people's lives. The founding of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is also an interesting read. Even though we (mainland Chinese and Taiwanese) share the same origin and culture, yet we know so little about each other and the political tension still exists today.
Growing up in HK (and the US), I never knew much about Taiwan until I finished this book. It's very informative on Taiwan's modern history and popular culture, and how it moved from an authoritarian state not unlike mainland China to its current democratic incarnation.
There are a number of things that the author could not have mentioned if he wanted the book published in mainland China, especially the events that took place in the year before 1990. And well, that's a compromise that many writers there have to face.
In addition to cutting away stuff, the Chinese Financial Times says that one particular sentence was added to the book without the author's knowledge -- that he only learned about it after it was published: A united and powerful China is what's best for Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan strait. (http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001030425)
In the end, I'm glad that he took the compromise, since more information is always a good thing (despite the fact that many of the author's Taiwanese friends won't talk to him because of the mainland's censorship and the editor's (or even his/her higher-ups') meddling -- poor guy).
well 感觉并没有很多收获... 作者的叙事方式比较像是单纯地陈述事实(记流水账)然而并没有太多分析,只是作为一个入门级的台湾读物解释了政治文化生活各个方面,但每个方面都不精,对于我而言主要对政治比较感兴趣,但是这本书除了类似于百科般地陈列事实并没有什么有趣的东西,我相信市面上肯定有比这好得多的书!不过基于这本书的定位,我还是会推荐大家读的,毕竟多一点是一点!