Status Updates From Die wichtigste Insel der We...

Fitting to say on the last page that Germany's government is only beginning to realize that the times have changed. And odd, I could swear I had made a note about the situation of migrant workers in Taiwan etc. maybe I lost it.

Well, so far Trump did not abandone Taiwan, but as usual, everything is vague with him.

Oh gosh, I had no idea the german taiwan policy was so confusing for such a long time.

I never considered the KMT and DPP to be each struggling to harmonize Taiwan and the ROC, one wants Taiwan in the ROC, the other wants the ROC out of Taiwan.

Hm, what he writes about the chinese tourists reaching 4 million in 2014 and many leaving a bad impression because of rude behavior, arrogance and clutting all the tourist spots reminds me of similar reports from other countries.

I forgot that the chip producers cannot do it alone, they need material from other countries, so if China attacks those materials would no longer come.

There is a barbie museum in Taishan´?

I remember, when I was near Kaoshiung I saw the sky was a bit grey, and our guide talked about the pollution due to industry and apparently it was much worse in the past. Sadly part of the solution was industry moving to China. And look at that Mattel produced barbie and he-man dolls in Taiwan? Was one of my He-Man dolls from there as well?

So "Chinese Taipei" was a creation by the ROC nationals because they did not want to use Taiwan back in the day after the whole two chinas thing started.

Oh, so pressure by thee US was also a reason that president Chiang opened Taiwan up for democracy. But boy, no wonder that the people were so pissed about the election of 1990, when Lee was elected, because he was elected by the national assembly and they were all from China and some so old they were in wheelchairs.

So basically China wants Taiwan to be seen as a remnant of the chinese civil war despite it no longer being ruled by the KMT exclusively.

There was a claim that during the Three Waring States and the Sui Realm the rulers send tens of thousands of people to Taiwan? And the Yuan dynasty already had jurisdiction about Taiwan? There is no proof whatsoever of that.

Madame Chiang and Chiang Kai-Shek seem like a good pair for a movie or tv show, after all if she is so good that she could make Roosevelt overlook her husband's brutality and corruption and was the second woman ever to speak in front of the american congress. And of course she had her darker sides as well.

So buildings like the Sun Yatsen memorial hall and the grand hotel were based on chinese palace architecture but with steel and concrete and oversized due to the cultural renovation of the KMT in contrast to the CCP's cultural revolution.

80% of an ingredient for smokeless gunpowder once came from Taiwan?

I wish I would have known some of this stuff before my Taiwan vaccation. I might have visited Hobe Fort on my first day no matter how tired I was. And boy Taiwan did seem like the stereotypical wild west back then even when it become an official separate province of the Qing empire. And looks like it was indigenous for such a long time because no one realized its strategic importance.

Where the french ghosts from the sino-french war in Keelung really offered red whine and baguette as offerings during Ghost Month? I researched and found stuff about an offical ritual but not what was offered.

I think I heard about this french guy who claimed to be a Formosan, I just didn't know all the stuff he claimed like cannibalism, royals, fake language, religion, culture etc.

what is this netflix show about koxinga and the siege of zeelandia that he wrote about? I looked for it but could find nothing. Not even about that german guy hans jürgen radis who told the Qing forces where to finally break the fort.

I did not know that aborignals were raiding the fujian coast or that they are overpresented in the taiwanese military. And this is kind of odd when the author says this or that Minnan is a language and not a dialect but then doesn't mention that the first people from Fujian were hired by the Dutch and just talks about "Europeans." He even points out similarities with North America.

right, the masks from Taiwan back then were barely noticed but the ones bought from China were considered so great even though they were garbage. This book brings back some memories.

hm, I really must have been more connected to Taiwan than most people and not realizing it back then. Because so much here is familiar to me.