Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan

In 1895, British Consul Lionel Charles Hopkins was summoned by the governor of Taiwan, to his yamen in Taipei and was handed a petition appealing to the British government to incorporate the island into a protectorate in the wake of impending Japanese invasion. The British declined. This book investigates this pivotal moment in Taiwan's history.

Niki J.P. Alsford is Reader in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire and is Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS.

Introduction 1. The Petition: The History Behind a Document 2. 'The Poor in China Just Grab a Bag and Run Over': Han Pioneer Settlement in Formosa from the Seventeenth Century 3. The British Treaty-Port Community 4. 'And There the Twain Shall Meet': The Formation of an Urban Gentry in a Market Town in Northern Taiwan 5. The Spirit of 1895: Occupation, Capitulation, and Resistance Conclusion