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Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Oh Hell Yeah! New Book: From Province to Republic to Colony

I received this gloriously wonderful book in the mail last week (Books Tw). This post is not a review of the book because none is necessary: this book is fantastic. It covers the life and activities of James W. Davidson, the reporter who traveled with the Japanese invasion force in 1895 and wrote The Island of Formosa Past and Present, one of the foundational books of the literature on Taiwan. He also served as a US consul in Taiwan and elsewhere.

From Province to Republic to Colony contains, well, everything. It's a combination of scrapbook and scholarly commentary on the life of Davidson: newspaper clippings, letters to and from Davidson, lists in his own hand, photos of the period, period illustrations, writings of Davidson's and so on. Commentary is presented in Chinese and English. Go below for some random photos of the interior this amazing volume. Alas, all my cameras are broken, so photos not as good as they might be. But if you are at all interested in the history of Taiwan, you want this book.




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1 comment:

  1. KreditanstaltSeptember 6, 2017 at 9:37 AM

    Looks like a great addendum to "The Island of Formosa Past & Present", which latter I have already.

    But in "The Island of Formosa" Davidson was very sympathetic to Japanese forces, applauding their cleanliness, orderly behaviour and bringing of order and he makes many, many disparaging comments about the behavior of Qing troops and local forces.

    Davidson was a representative of his times as well as being a talented journalist.

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