*
Homepage

 

12/07 (Sat)

Closed Today

*
Where did I Leave My Footprints? Lin Xian-tang’s Journey to Europe

Publication date: 28 Nov 2013
Author: Ou Yi-han |Staff member of the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

Lin Xian-tang (1881-1956), one of the figures in Traveling in Time Exhibition, was the leader of the Lin Family from Wufeng, Taichung. On May 15, 1927, he took the Fengshan Ferry from the Keelung Port with his two sons Pan-long and You-long starting to travel around in Europe and America. They spent 378 days visiting ten countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland. In his diary, Lin Xian-tang wrote of what he had seen in his journey and hoped to broaden Taiwanese’s knowledge of Western culture. Now, let’s follow Lin’s steps by reading The Diary of Mr. Guan-yuan in 1927 to visit Europe!

*
III. John Thomson’s footprints in Formosa

John Thomson published Through China: with a Camera in 1898. Through his words and photographs, we can feel a western traveler’s feelings of his first visit in Taiwan. The hearsay of the aboriginal people in Taiwan could not stop Thomson’s curiosity toward them. However, his voyage to Taiwan was not easy since passing through the Taiwan Strait has never been an easy thing. Even worse, a Malaysian sailor told him that their ship might hit a reef and there were headhunters living on the island. Even though the rumors sounded scary, John Thomson still wanted to see Formosa in person. In fact, these rumors were actually from the incidents and conflicts between Japan and China at that time. In the end, the rumors affected John Thomson, causing him to change his traveling plans in Taiwan. After John Thomson and Dr. Maxwell reached the Port of Takao (Kaohsiung) in the early April in 1871, they soon met a Scottish pastor, Hugh Ritchie, who had been doing his missionary work in Takao. Hugh Ritchie told them that it was not safe to stay in the southern Taiwan so that John Thomson gave up on the idea of visiting the aboriginal peoples living there. He followed Dr. Maxwell and went northbound to Taiwan Prefecture and the areas where Taiwanese plain aborigines lived. They ended up visiting Bama (Zuojhen), Muzha (Neimen), Ganzailin, Jiaxianpu, (Jiaxian), Paozailiao, Laonong, and Liuguili. John Thomson used his camera to capture the images of the Taiwanese plain aborigines and the natural landscapes in Taiwan within a week.(see Figure 1 & 2)

Figure 1:The image of Neimen District of Taiwan through John Thomson’s lens
(Source:Through China : with a camera, the digital archives of the Archives of Institution of Taiwan History)
Figure2: The image of Laonong District of Taiwan through John Thomson’s lens
(Source:Through China : with a camera, the digital archives of the Archives of Institution of Taiwan History)


11F., South Wing, Building for Humanities and Social Sciences, 128, Sec. 2, Academia Rd., Nangang Dist., Taipei City 11529,
Taiwan Tel: +886-2-2652-5181 Fax: +886-2-2652-5184 【Contact us
Copyright © 2010 Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica. All Rights Reserved