Browsing: books about Taiwan

We continue with our serialization of Taiwan in 100 Books and find out what became of George Psalmanazar, a young Frenchman claiming to be a native of Formosa. He was the author of An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704), one of history’s greatest literary hoaxes.

Next week we will continue the Psalmanazar story, covering how his Formosan claims were challenged and how he defended himself. Our French conman had some very cunning explanations to rebut his challengers, and also the confidence that came from an increasing intake of drugs.

Today, the Kaohsiung Times gratefully begins running John Ross’ Taiwan in 100 Books (2020). It tells the story of Taiwan through the prism of some of the most important and/or most interesting English-language works on the country. Unfortunately, due to some dark publisher drama, the title is not currently available for sale; so, John is making it available here. In the coming months, we will, in weekly installments, be serializing the entire book.