ALMOST HERE - The English Translation of: A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa by Dr. Chen Yao-chang 陳耀昌
Aug. 3, 2023

Bonus Episode: 2-28: A Bad Beginning

Bonus Episode: 2-28: A Bad Beginning

In this special episode, we hear Eryk reading from chapter five of John’s “Taiwan in 100 Books.” The topic is 2-28, an event named after a date: February 28, 1947. It’s usually referred to as the February 28 incident, but sometimes called the 2-28 Massacre. American vice-consul at the time George Kerr used the term “the March massacres,” which gives a more accurate impression of what happened; the brutal suppression of uprisings and protests throughout the country, which left perhaps 20,000 dead. It was a bad beginning to ROC rule on Formosa, a dark stain that was a taboo topic until the early 1990s. Listen and learn about George Kerr’s “Formosa Betrayed”(1965), probably the most important English-language non-fiction work on Taiwan. We also cover the first English-language White Terror novel, “A Pail of Oysters” (1953), by Vern Sneider, and Allan James Shackleton’s “Formosa Calling” (1998), an account of 2-28 which took four decades to get published.

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The History of Taiwan - Formosa Files

Books mentioned in this episode include: 

A Pail of Oysters- by Vern Sneider

Formosa Betrayed - by George H. Kerr

Formosa Calling: An Eyewitness Account of the February 28th, 1947 Incident 

- by Allan J. Shackleton

John Ross has written about these and many more Taiwan-related books in his 2020 book "Taiwan in 100 Books."

 

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