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A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa

1640s Formosa lies in the hands of the Dutch East India Company. Across the Taiwan Strait, China is collapsing. Ming loyalists in the south fight on against the new Qing dynasty, preeminent among them the warlord Koxinga. In the faraway Netherlands,

 

Maria, the second daughter of Reverend Antonius Hambroeck, learns that her family are bound for the “Beautiful Island.” They will begin a new life in Mattau (麻豆), a village of the Indigenous Siraya People. Maria befriends Uma, a young Siraya woman who is among the first indigenous generation to receive a Dutch education and be baptized.

 

Amid cooperation and conflict, a fledgling nation is emerging from the “three tribes of Dutch Formosa” – the Dutch, Indigenous tribes, and Chinese farmers from Fujian. But a new Chinese group is coming: Koxinga, his army, and General Chen Ze – all determined to oust the Dutch. Against this dramatic backdrop, the intertwined personal stories of Maria, Uma, and Chen Ze unfold.

 

Yao-Chang Chen’s A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa not only takes us back to the roots of Taiwan’s history, but for the first time tells the story from multiple perspectives, that of the Siraya, the Dutch, and the Chinese.