Taiwan臺灣

People reached Taiwan thousands of years ago, and linguists widely see the island as the homeland from which Austronesian languages spread across the Pacific and Indian oceans, as far as Madagascar and Hawaii. For most of recorded history the island was home to many separate Indigenous peoples living by farming, hunting and fishing, with little outside rule. Chinese fishermen and pirates used the west coast, and Japanese traders called at northern harbours, but no state claimed the whole island until the 17th century.

The Dutch East India Company built Fort Zeelandia at today's Anping in Tainan in 1624 and ruled the south-west as a trading colony, bringing in Chinese labourers from Fujian to grow rice and sugar. The Spanish held the north around Keelung and Tamsui from 1626 until the Dutch drove them out in 1642. In 1662 Zheng Chenggong, known in the West as Koxinga, a Ming loyalist fighting the new Qing dynasty, expelled the Dutch and set up a kingdom based in Tainan. His family ruled for two decades before the Qing took the island in 1683.

Under the Qing, Taiwan was for two centuries a frontier prefecture of Fujian. Settlers from southern Fujian (Hoklo, speaking Hokkien) and from Hakka areas of Guangdong crossed the strait, pushed into the western plains and fought each other and the Indigenous peoples over land. Lukang, Tainan and the Wanhua district of Taipei grew as trade towns. After foreign powers opened treaty ports in the 1860s and France attacked the north in the 1880s, Taiwan became a province in 1885, with Taipei as its capital.

China ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the First Sino-Japanese War. Early armed resistance, both Chinese and Indigenous, was suppressed, sometimes brutally, as in the 1930 Wushe uprising. Japan then made Taiwan a model colony: railways, ports, sanitation, schools, hydroelectric dams and a sugar and rice economy tied to Japan. Many of Taipei's grand buildings, the rail network and the hot-spring resorts date from this period. By the 1940s, many Taiwanese had grown up speaking Japanese, and memories of the era remain mixed.

After Japan's surrender in 1945, the Republic of China (ROC) under Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) took over. Tensions with the new administration exploded in the February 28 Incident of 1947, when a crackdown killed thousands of people, many of them local leaders. In 1949, losing the civil war to the Communists, the ROC government moved to Taipei with about one to two million soldiers and civilians. Martial law, declared that year, lasted until 1987; the period of political persecution is known as the White Terror.

From the 1960s Taiwan industrialised fast, first in textiles and electronics assembly, later in computers and semiconductors. In 1971 the ROC lost its United Nations seat to the People's Republic of China (PRC), and most countries switched formal recognition to Beijing over the following decade. Democratisation came from below and from within the KMT: the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) formed in 1986, martial law ended in 1987, the legislature was fully elected in 1992, and the first direct presidential election took place in 1996. Power has since changed hands peacefully between the KMT and the DPP several times. The PRC claims Taiwan and has not ruled out force; the ROC governs Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu; and most countries keep unofficial ties with Taipei.

About 23 million people live in Taiwan, most of them on the western plains between Taipei and Kaohsiung; the mountainous centre and the east are thinly settled. The usual shorthand describes four groups. Hoklo people, descended from southern Fujian settlers, are the majority and many speak Taiwanese Hokkien. Hakka people are about a sixth of the population, concentrated in the north-western hills and around Meinong in the south. People who came with the ROC government after 1945, and their descendants, are often called waishengren. Indigenous peoples are about 2.5%.

Sixteen Indigenous peoples are officially recognised, including the Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Truku, Tao (Yami) of Orchid Island, and the Thao of Sun Moon Lake. Many live in the east and the mountains; many others now live in cities. Recognition, land rights, language revival and the naming of places have been important political themes since the 1990s, and the president apologised formally to Indigenous peoples in 2016. Harvest festivals in summer, above all the Amis festivals along the east coast, are the easiest way for visitors to see this culture on its own terms.

Newer arrivals are changing the mix. Several hundred thousand migrant workers from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand work in factories, fishing and home care, and many women from Southeast Asia and the mainland have married into Taiwanese families. On Sundays the area around Taipei Main Station fills with Indonesian workers on their day off. Taiwan's birth rate is among the lowest in the world, the population began to shrink around 2020, and the country is ageing fast.

Religion is mostly a blend rather than a choice between faiths. Most people practise some mix of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religion, with Confucian ancestor rites at home. Neighbourhood temples honour local gods, city gods and above all Mazu, the sea goddess from Fujian, whose annual pilgrimages draw hundreds of thousands of walkers. People consult the gods about marriages, exams and business by throwing crescent-shaped moon blocks and drawing fortune sticks. Large Buddhist organisations such as Tzu Chi and Fo Guang Shan run hospitals, universities and disaster relief. Christians are a small minority overall but a majority among many Indigenous peoples.

Identity is the question under many conversations. Surveys over the past three decades show a steady rise in people who describe themselves as Taiwanese only, with fewer choosing Chinese only and a large group saying both. Views on the island's future range from formal independence to eventual unification, and most people prefer to keep the current situation for now. Visitors do best by listening: people hold these views strongly, and they differ by generation, family history and region.

Temple architecture is the most visible art in Taiwan. Southern Fujian styles dominate: sweeping swallowtail ridges, roofs crowded with cut-porcelain dragons and figures (jiannian), carved stone dragon columns and painted door gods. Families of master craftsmen competed on the same temple, sometimes splitting a building down the middle so each side showed one workshop's skill. Tainan, Lukang and Taipei's Wanhua and Dalongdong districts hold the finest examples, and restoration keeps these crafts alive.

Japanese colonial architecture forms a second layer: red-brick and stone public buildings in Western revival styles, such as the Presidential Office Building and the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei, and wooden Japanese-style houses, many now restored as cafés, museums and writers' houses. Railway stations, sugar factories and tobacco plants from the period have been turned into cultural parks, such as Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei and the Pier-2 Art Center in Kaohsiung.

Post-1949 buildings brought Chinese palace style in concrete: the Grand Hotel, the National Palace Museum and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with glazed tile roofs and red columns. The National Palace Museum itself holds one of the largest collections of Chinese imperial art in the world, much of it moved from Beijing in the 1930s and 1940s, including jade, bronzes, calligraphy and painting. Taipei 101, finished in 2004 and for a time the world's tallest building, draws on bamboo and pagoda forms.

Taiwan's film and literature explore the island's history and daily life. Directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang led the Taiwan New Cinema of the 1980s; Ang Lee became internationally known; and Tsai Ming-liang made slow, spare city films. Puppet theatre (budaixi) grew from temple shows into television series, and Taiwanese opera (gezaixi), sung in Hokkien, still plays at temple festivals. Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, founded by Lin Hwai-min in 1973, blends tai chi, calligraphy and modern dance and is one of Asia's best-known companies.

Mandopop from Taiwan shaped music across the Chinese-speaking world, from Teresa Teng in the 1970s and 1980s to Jay Chou and Mayday later. Indigenous singers have brought their languages to the charts. Street art, design and indie music scenes are strong in Taipei and Tainan, and illustrated work by artists such as Jimmy Liao is widely translated. The annual Golden Horse Awards in Taipei are the main prize for Chinese-language film.

Taiwanese cooking starts from southern Fujian home food: rice, pork, soy sauce, rice wine, seafood and plenty of pickled and preserved vegetables. Braised pork rice (lu rou fan), milkfish, oyster omelettes and small bowls of noodles came from this tradition, and Tainan is still where it is taken most seriously, with a slightly sweeter touch than the north. Hakka cooking adds salt-preserved greens, stir-fried pork and squid, flat rice noodles and lei cha, a tea pounded with grains and seeds.

Japanese rule left sushi, oden, bento boxes (biandang), a taste for sashimi and many snack names. The 1949 arrivals brought the cooking of every Chinese province: Sichuan chilli, Shandong dumplings and bread, Zhejiang soup dumplings and Hunan dishes. Beef noodle soup, now seen as a national dish, took shape in the military dependants' villages, where cooks adapted Sichuan braising to local ingredients. Indigenous food, from millet and bamboo-tube rice to wild greens and smoked meat, is gaining space in restaurants.

Eating out is normal for every meal. Breakfast shops open at dawn for soy milk, egg crêpes (dan bing) and fried dough; lunch is often a biandang from a shop or a convenience store; and night markets, which grew from temple-square food stalls, feed the evening. Convenience stores, more than 13,000 of them, are part of the food system too, with tea eggs, rice balls and hot meals. Portions are small by design, so people graze from stall to stall.

Tea is a second food culture. Oolong grown on high mountain slopes, including Alishan and Lishan, and the lightly oxidised Pouchong from Pinglin, are prized, while Sun Moon Lake grows black tea introduced in the Japanese period. Bubble tea, with tapioca pearls, was popularised in Taichung or Tainan in the 1980s (both claim it) and is now exported worldwide. Order sugar and ice levels at every counter.

Vegetarian food is easy because of Buddhism: vegetarian buffets priced by weight are in every town, and many people eat vegetarian on certain days of the lunar month. Food-safety scandals in the 2010s, involving recycled cooking oil, made ingredient labels and origins a public issue. Michelin has covered Taipei since 2018 and later Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, listing night-market stalls alongside fine dining.

The year runs on two calendars. Offices and schools follow the Gregorian calendar, but festivals and temple birthdays follow the lunar one, so their dates move each year. Lunar New Year is the biggest: families gather on New Year's Eve for a reunion dinner, hand out red envelopes of cash (hongbao), visit temples at midnight to put the first incense in the burner, and travel home for several days of rest. Cities empty and many small shops close.

The Lantern Festival closes the New Year period on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Crowds release paper sky lanterns painted with wishes at Pingxi in the hills east of Taipei, the town of Yanshui in Tainan holds a festival of fireworks shot at the crowd from beehive-shaped racks, and a national Taiwan Lantern Festival moves between cities each year with giant light installations.

Spring and summer bring Tomb Sweeping Day in early April, when families clean graves and make offerings, and the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, with races on rivers and rice dumplings (zongzi) wrapped in bamboo leaves. Mazu's birthday, in the third lunar month, sets off the great pilgrimages, such as the nine-day walk from Dajia in Taichung, with processions, firecrackers and roadside hospitality.

The seventh lunar month is Ghost Month, when the gates of the underworld are believed to open. Shops and families set out tables of food and burn paper money for wandering spirits, and some people avoid swimming, moving house or starting ventures. Keelung's Ghost Festival, with its lantern parade and floating water lanterns, is one of the largest. The Mid-Autumn Festival follows, when mooncakes, pomelos and, in a modern Taiwanese twist, pavement barbecues are the custom.

Indigenous harvest festivals run through July and August, above all among the Amis on the east coast, with dancing that can last for days; some are open to respectful visitors and some are not. Modern civic dates include National Day on 10 October, with a parade and fireworks, New Year's Eve fireworks from Taipei 101, and Taipei Pride in late October. Religious processions are loud, with firecrackers and drums; stand back and follow local cues.

Taiwan's economy is built on exports and, above all, semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), founded in 1987 by Morris Chang with state support, makes the large majority of the world's most advanced chips, and its plants run from Hsinchu Science Park, south-west of Taipei, down to Tainan and Kaohsiung. Other firms such as Foxconn, MediaTek, ASUS and Acer, and a dense web of suppliers, make Taiwan central to global electronics. Bicycles, machine tools and petrochemicals are older strengths.

Daily life is organised around small, dense cities and small businesses. Scooters, more than 14 million of them, are the default transport outside the MRT. Arcaded pavements (tingzaijiao) shelter shoppers from sun and rain. Convenience stores pay bills, print documents, ship parcels and sell train tickets. Rubbish is collected by trucks that play music, and residents wait on the kerb to hand their bags up, sorting recyclables and food waste themselves. Recycling rates are among the highest in the world.

Politics is lively and participatory. Elections draw high turnouts, with rallies, flags and campaign trucks. The Sunflower Movement of 2014, when students occupied the legislature over a trade agreement with the PRC, shaped a generation of activists. Taiwan was the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2019, after a court ruling and a referendum debate. Civic tech, open government data and a strong press are points of local pride.

The island's position shapes everyday planning. Men do compulsory military service, extended back to one year from 2024. Annual civil-defence drills clear the streets for half an hour. The PRC holds military exercises around the island from time to time, and news of them is part of normal life, though for most people daily routines continue unchanged. Housing costs in Taipei, low wages for young people and an ageing population are the domestic concerns heard most often.

Nature is close to every city. About two-thirds of the island is mountain and forest, with more than 200 peaks above 3,000 m, and the national park system protects Yushan, Taroko, Yangmingshan and others. The same geology means earthquakes, landslides and typhoons; the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake killed about 2,400 people and led to strict building codes, and the April 2024 Hualien earthquake showed how those codes save lives while mountain roads remain vulnerable.