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Taiwan in the Eyes of a Western Traveler--John Thomson’s Footprints in Formosa

Publication date: 2013
Author: Li Pin-huei |Staff member of the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

John Thomson(1837-1921)is regarded as a pioneering photographer in the 19th century. He traveled to Far East, documenting the portraits, landscapes and eastern cultures profoundly through his lens and these photographs have become precious historical records. Although John Thomson only stayed in Taiwan for a few days, the images and notes he left are valuable historical materials for the research into Taiwan in the 1870s.His story could be comparable to Shen Bao-zhen, one of the figures in 「Traveling in Time」Exhibition. They were the travelers who came to Taiwan in the same time period. Through their stories, we can learn how they interpret Formosa in the 19th century.
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V. Conclusion

Combining features of the mountains, river, ocean, and cultures, Tamsui attracted many artists to sketch from the 1930s to the 1980s. Their paintings represent historic stories told by Tamsui over the past one hundred years. Although Tamsui has become modern since the development of the Taipei metro and real estate, the sites of its military forts, the images of a busy trading port, and histories witnessed by the mountains themselves still exist in old photographs and senior artists’ paintings.


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