If you’d like to sponsor our program, we will have your logo shown here
Keep working, stop fooling, good tea, one two three four~ Sakura are everywhere~ Yeah
Hello everyone, welcome to Taiwan Bar
Today let’s talk about Taiwan’s modernization
Speaking of this topic
You’d probably think of Liu Ming Chuan in Qing Dynasty or the Ten Major Construction projects launched by Chiang Ching Kuo
...hold on...
What about the gap in between?
Hmm...Let’s pause for a sec. and think about this
Oops, it paused literally
Ahem, how come we usually ignore this gap?
Um, what gap?
The modernization under Japanese rule
In 1895, right after Taiwan was ceded to Japan according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki,
Japan rushed hastily to this Island in- the- middle- of- nowhere
and in order to make Taiwan a lovely and neat and peaceful place,
leading Taiwan to modernize with Japan was a must-do.
Of course there were also other reasons
but before explaining why we are so unfamiliar with this era
Let’s fill the gap first
Ahem, here we go
Speaking of the modernization of Taiwan under Japanese rule,
there were the development of infrastructures
and also the change of living habits
On infrastructures
the Urban Planning actively promoted by Goto Shinpei is first to be talk about
For example, the Governor-General of Taiwan, which is now the Office of the President
Aside from this,
there is also the Taipei Guest House which is close to NTU Hospital
(W~T~H?)
on the cool and cozy boulevard
...blah blah blah
In addition, the two main harbors, which led Taiwan to economic take off
Goofy in Chinese is translated as “Kao Fei”, Kao means “high” while Fei means “Fly”, together the two words means “to raise rapidly”
Kaohsiung Harbor and Keelung Harbor
Bank of Taiwan, which can be found everywhere,
also the famous Guishan Power Plant
Famous?
All of the above are the results in Goto Shinpei’s period
Recruited by Mr. Goto, Hasegawa Kinsuke designed the Western-line railway
has already reached to Kaohsiung from Keelung a hundred years ago
Besides the infrastructures
the change of lifestyle and customs were highlighted in the modernization as well
Japan considered foot binding, queue and the use of opium as the Three Vices of Taiwan
As for the use of opium
you can click the link and review it
After Qing Dynasty collapsed in 1911, queue-cutting had become a trend that swept across Taiwan
along with the anti-foot binding
In 1915, Governor-General of Taiwan took advantage of the fever, and mobilized the Baojia system
(Baojia system's primary purpose was to monitor and control the citizens)
To promote the abolishment of foot binding and queue-wearing comprehensively
This movement went viral under the supervision of the police
Since girls no longer practice foot-binding
they can work harder
thus contributed to Taiwan’s economic growth
Aside from the gradual improvement of the three vices
Japan also brought the concept of being on time and following laws and orders
First, about punctuality
the Governor General introduced week system and set Sunday as a day off (Hooray)
Therefore farmers, who used to work their tails off round the clock, officially have leisure time now
It further brought out the idea of leisure activity (party party party)
and developed recreations
Umm...
Besides week system, Japan also brought in the Standard Time System
With the use of Greenwich Mean Time
the original time concept of Chinese Sexagenary cycle
turned into what we use nowadays “eight p.m. on the 1st of every month”
In terms of obeying the law
With the support of Baojia system, the police officers had
Taiwan enjoyed a status which people didn’t need to lock their doors at night.
The Governor General also introduced Western law system
so Taiwan’s judicial proceeding has transformed from Lord Bao’s lever-knife
into modern system with judges and lawyers
At the early years, Taiwanese people were in defending police authority
After a while
Taiwanese had gradually adapted themselves into the customs
Wait a sec! There’s something to be clarified
Umm, speaking of being called “Ghost Island”
it seems to be something in recent years, isn't it
Plague was very severe in the beginning of Japanese rule,
You may arrive Taiwan today, and home as a spirit in a week
( It is believed that after one is dead, his spirit would return home on the seventh day, which is called “First Seven" )
Therefore Taiwan has already been called “Ghost Island” a hundred years ago (oooooooo~)
To solve the sanitary problems
the Governor General actively set up public health and medical systems
NTU Hospital was founded, which is former Taiwan Governor General Medical School
Also, the Baojia system was in charge of supervising hygiene education and rules
These acts not only increased Taiwanese level of civilization
They no longer spit nor take a leak wherever they pleased
but also lowered the mortality rate significantly
Increasing population from 3 million at the beginning to 6.6 million
Umm...
Okay, We can now see that
many important architectures
And the gradual changes of lifestyles were cultivated during Japanese rule in the past 50 years
But why are we so unconscious and so unfamiliar with this gap in history?
Well, besides it was “accidentally” neglected by KM…
...by civic education
Another reason is the essence of Japanese colonization
made many people unwilling to admit the achievement during the colonial era
For example
Both at work and in education at that time
It was obvious that Taiwanese were excluded
Japanese not only occupied most of the government positions
but also got higher pay even when they were in the same position with Taiwanese “oops”
In terms of education, Taiwanese people were assigned to worse schools
or didn’t have a chance to go to any school even if they wanted to
In addition to these unfair treatments
Economic exploitation on agriculture was even worse
Kodoyama Gentaro and Goto Shinpei
assumed that sugar industry can attract investment, and is also the foundation of colonial economy
Therefore Mr. Goto went to Nitobe Inazo
who later wrote "Taiwan Sugar Business Improvement Opinion Form" in order to improve the sugar industry
Next year, Imperial Conference passed the “Taiwan Sugar Business Encouragement Rules”
which regulated that sugarcane can only be sold to certain Kabushiki Kaisha(KK), which means Corporation
The price was directly controlled by KK
No matter how low the price was, Taiwanese farmers could only accept it
With this kind of encouragement strategy
Japanese capitalist ripped Taiwanese farmers off
The consequence of exploitation
leads to the slang of “only the dumbest people, sell sugarcane to the KK”
O~K
After telling you about the exploitation
and how Taiwan was modernized under Japanese rule
We finally bridged the 50-year-gap
Back to our topic
When we look back at this period of history
either exaggerating Japanese’ contribution
or denigrating the evil emperor’s colonization intentionally
are really dangerous in understanding the era of Japanese rule
Both can easily lead to deadlock of hatred and obsession in the past
and make us adopt specific ideology
It's like you think you spot a hottie, and when she turned around you realized it’s a doggie…um…
Okay, that's all for today
This glass of Brandy is almost finished
See you same time next month! Cheers
Taiwan Bar is produced by DJ Hauer
Scripted and hosted by Buchi (Hello everyone)
Animated by JiaJiach, who cooks her own lunch to stay pretty and healthy
History context provided by Thomas Xiao, but he doesn’t want to be called Thomas the choo-choo train
And finally, the music is being, umm, produced by DJ Hauer
If you like our videos, please give it a thumb-up and subscribe to our channel
Or you can click here to get our products
Please support us to make more videos like this
We will upload new episodes at 8 pm on the first of every month
Please watch it on time, See you then! Bye!
Knock off! Let’s eat!
Finally!
What are we gonna eat?
How about fried chicken rice?
Hmm, fried chicken rice?
I want an extra egg
Hey Hauer, guess what
There was a guy
What
Well he didn't subscribe and you know what
What?
Eh?
What happened?
Hehe, what did you said?
Are you dragging out to make people subscribe
Did you subscribed
Subscribed to what? Taiwan Bar?
NARUTO? One two three!
Ah isn’t Naruto coming to an end?
What end you geek
Stop, we're finishing off
Subscribe or we can't wrap it up
Ah ok, see you next month! Goodbye~
Bye