Join Rebel Island author Jonathan Clements for a talk on the Zheng Cheng-gong (1624-62), as part of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Seminar Series.
Date & Time:
29 May 2024, 7 – 9pm
Tickets:
Open to all and not needing to register
Location:
Main Building
SOAS University of London
10 Thornhaugh St
London WC1H 0XG
SOAS University of London
10 Thornhaugh St
London WC1H 0XG
Jonathan Clements at SOAS
Date & Time:
29 May 2024, 7 – 9pm
Tickets:
Open to all and not needing to register
Location:
Main Building
SOAS University of London
10 Thornhaugh St
London WC1H 0XG
SOAS University of London
10 Thornhaugh St
London WC1H 0XG
Clements talks through the strange afterlife of Zheng Cheng-gong (1624-62), the Ming loyalist and conqueror of Taiwan, variously derided as a pirate and a rebel; lauded as a resistance leader and prince, twice deified, spuriously reclaimed as both a Japanese patriot and a Chinese "People's Hero".
Along the way, there are some unlikely legends, some suspicious shenanigans, and his co-option into a 2010 mayoral campaign that threatened to turn into a fistfight among historians.
For more information, visit the event website here.
Related Book
£12.99 GBP
Rebel Island
The gripping story of Taiwan, from the flood myths of ancient legend to its ‘Asian Tiger’ economic miracle — and the looming threat of invasion by China.
Once dismissed by the Kangxi Emperor as nothing but a ‘ball of mud’, Taiwan has a modern GDP larger than that of Sweden, in a land area smaller than Indiana. It is the last surviving enclave of the Republic of China, a lost colony of Japan, and claimed by Beijing as a rogue province — merely the latest chapters in its long history as a refuge for pirates, rebels, settlers, and outcasts.
In Rebel Island, Jonathan Clements offers a concise and vivid telling of Taiwan’s complex island story, beginning with the unique conditions of its archaeology before examining its indigenous history and its days as a Dutch and Spanish trading post. He delves into its periods as an independent kingdom, Chinese province, and short-lived republic, and the transformations wrought by 50 years as part of the Japanese Empire.
In 1949, the island became a lifeboat for two million refugees from the Chinese Communist Revolution, and the White Terror began. Later chapters explain the recent conflicts that have emerged after the suspension of four decades of martial law, as the Taiwanese debate issues of self-determination, independence, and home rule — all under the watchful gaze of President Xi Jinping, and politicians around the world.
Rebel Island is an essential guide to Taiwan’s past and present, providing invaluable context at a time of escalating tension over its future.
