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When did people first get to Taiwan? Was there a land bridge? Plus... a few interesting legends. A short phone call that's a fun intro to Taiwan’s prehistory.
Cover image: Rukai Chief on a visit to the Department of Anthropology at Tokyo Imperial University in January 1900 (during Japanese rule 1895-1945).
(Via Wikimedia Commons/Ryūzō Torii
Below: A hybrid of ancestor worship customs from a small group of indigenous people in the mountains of Liu Gui, Kaohsiung. These people are not formally recognized as a 'tribe' and say they do not remember much of their native language -- a good example of how so many cultures have been lost or assimilated since Han Chinese and westerners began settling in Taiwan some 400 years ago.
(Photo by Eryk Michael Smith)
Below: The approximate Native Taiwanese tribal area borders from a (reportedly) 1950s-era assessment.
Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became was famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
