Taiwan , officially the Republic of China (ROC ), is a country in East Asia .
It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean , with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. The territories controlled by the ROC consist of 168 islands with a combined area of 36,193 square kilometres (13,974 square miles). The main island of Taiwan , also known as Formosa , has an area of 35,808 square kilometres (13,826 square miles), with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanized population is concentrated. The capital, Taipei , forms along with New Taipei City and Keelung the largest metropolitan area . With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated countries .
Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale Han Chinese immigration began under a Dutch colony and continued under the Kingdom of Tungning , the first predominantly Han Chinese state in Taiwanese history . The island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China and ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. The Republic of China , which had overthrown the Qing in 1912 , took control following the surrender of Japan in 1945. Japan renounced sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952 . The immediate resumption of the Chinese Civil War resulted in the loss of the Chinese mainland to Communist forces , who established the People's Republic of China , and the flight of the ROC central government to Taiwan in 1949. The effective jurisdiction of the ROC has since been limited to Taiwan, Penghu , and smaller islands.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization called the "Taiwan Miracle ". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a one-party state under martial law to a multi-party democracy , with democratically elected presidents since 1996 . Taiwan's export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the 20th-largest by PPP measures, with a focus on steel, machinery, electronics, and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a developed country . It is ranked highly in terms of civil liberties , healthcare , and human development .
The political status of Taiwan is contentious. The ROC no longer represents China as a member of the United Nations after UN members voted in 1971 to recognize the PRC instead. The ROC maintained its claim of being the sole legitimate representative of China and its territory until 1991, when it ceased to regard the CCP as a rebellious group and recognized its control over mainland China. Taiwan is claimed by the PRC, which refuses to establish diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the ROC. Taiwan maintains official diplomatic relations with 11 out of 193 UN member states and the Holy See . Many others maintain unofficial diplomatic ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates . International organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate on a non-state basis. Domestically, the major political contention is between parties favoring eventual Chinese unification and promoting a pan-Chinese identity, contrasted with those aspiring to formal international recognition and promoting a Taiwanese identity ; into the 21st century, both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. (Full article... )
The most commonly used home language in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, 2010. ('cmn' = "Mandarin" 'nan' = "Hokkien"/"Min Nan" 'hak' = "Hakka" 'map' = Austronesian languages )
The languages of Taiwan consist of several varieties of languages under the families of Austronesian languages and Sino-Tibetan languages . The Formosan languages , a geographically designated branch of Austronesian languages, have been spoken by the Taiwanese indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Owing to the wide internal variety of the Formosan languages, research on historical linguistics recognizes Taiwan as the Urheimat (homeland) of the whole Austronesian languages family. In the last 400 years, several waves of Han emigrations brought several different Sinitic languages into Taiwan. These languages include Taiwanese Hokkien , Hakka , and Mandarin , which have become the major languages spoken in present-day Taiwan.
Formosan languages were the dominant language of
prehistorical Taiwan . Taiwan's long colonial and immigration
history brought in several languages such as
Dutch ,
Spanish ,
Hokkien ,
Hakka ,
Japanese , and
Mandarin . Due to the former
Japanese occupation of the island , the
Japanese language has influenced the languages of Taiwan, particularly in terms of vocabulary, with many
loanwords coming from Japanese. (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
Ang Lee OBS (Chinese : 李安 ; pinyin : Lǐ Ān ; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. His films are known for their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and numerous accolades including two Academy Awards , four BAFTA Awards , and three Golden Globe Awards . In 2003, he was ranked 27th in The Guardian 's 40 best directors.
Born in
Pingtung County , Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. He rose to prominence directing films such as
Pushing Hands (1991),
The Wedding Banquet (1993), and
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), which explored the relationships and conflicts between tradition and modernity, Eastern and Western; the three films are informally known as the "
Father Knows Best " trilogy. The films were critically successful both in Taiwan and internationally. (
Full article... )
List of selected biographies
Taipei 101
Distribution of aborigines.
... there are thirteen officially recognized Taiwanese aboriginal tribes (pictured) in Taiwan comprising 2% (458,000) of Taiwan's population. Did you also know that the Ami tribe are the most populous (37.5%) and that pop-singer A-mei is from the Puyuma tribe?
The following are images from various Taiwan-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 A map of the
Empire of Japan including Taiwan ("barbarian land" in red) in 1895 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 2 Evacuation of
Keelung by the French forces, image created 1887 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 3 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty in 1734 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 4 Map of Taiwan with the western coast pointed downwards, c. 1640 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 5 Depiction of Qing ships crossing the ocean to suppress the
Lin Shuangwen rebellion , 1787–1788 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 6 Mid-17th century portrait of
Koxinga (
Guoxingye or "Kok seng ia" in southern Fujianese), "Lord of the Imperial Surname" (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 7 Territory controlled by
Koxinga , founder of the
Kingdom of Tungning (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 8 Conquest of Douliumen (
Zhuluo ) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 9 Sky Lantern festival in
Pingxi , Taiwan (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 10 Woodcut of the mass killings which took place during the February 28 Incident (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 11 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty by 1894 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 12 Bunun dancer in traditional aboriginal dress (1989) (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 13 Two
7-Eleven stores opposite each other on a crossroad. Taiwan has the highest density of 7-Eleven stores per person in the world (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 15 Section of
Kangxi period painting of Taiwan, 1684–1722 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 16 The Qing Empire in 1820, with provinces in yellow, military governorates and protectorates in light yellow, tributary states in orange. (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 17 Entrance hall of a K-TV in Taipei (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 20 Severed heads of
Seediq rebels (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 21 Japanese painting of the expedition forces attacking the Mudan tribe, 1874 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 22 The original flag of the
Taiwanese People's Party , 2 January 1929 – 6 October 1929 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 23 Departure of a
Ryukyuan ship bearing tribute to
Beijing , 1831 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 24 Population density map of Taiwan in 2019 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 27 Bird's eye view of
Fort Zeelandia in
Dutch Formosa in the 17th-century (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 28 The Imperial Guard Defeats the Enemy in Hard Fighting at Keelung on the Island of Taiwan , 1895 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 29 Chinese depiction of Chikan (
Fort Provintia ), 1752 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 30 Apo Hsu and the
NTNU Symphony Orchestra on stage in the
National Concert Hall in
Taipei and Play
Saint-Saens 's
Organ Symphony No. 3 (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 31 Pearl milk tea (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 33 Photo from
Savages of Formosa , a 1926 government report on tribal life in Taiwan (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 34 Taiwan in the 17th century, showing Dutch (magenta) and Spanish (green) possessions, and the
Kingdom of Middag (orange) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 35 1901 map with red line marking approximate boundary separating territory under actual Japanese administration from "Savage District" (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 36 Shi Lang (1621–1696) in an 18th-century painting (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 37 Map of Asia showing the "Chinese Empire" (1892) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 38 Yin and Yang symbol of
Taoism (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 40 The Capture of
Lin Shuangwen (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 41 Depiction of a Chinese man, woman, and soldier, by Georg Franz Müller (1646–1723) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 42 Original geographic distributions of Taiwanese aboriginal peoples (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 43 Section of a painting depicting daily life of the
Taokas people , 1684–1722 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 44 Portrait of
Zheng Jing (1642–1681), possibly 17th c. (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 45 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty in 1685 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 46 Kagi Shrine , one of many Shinto shrines built in Taiwan. (from
History of Taiwan )
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