Researchers yesterday said they have discovered a trove of documents detailing street plans of mid-17th century Tainan under Dutch rule, highlighting the city’s role as a commercial hub inhabited by migrants from across Southeast Asia.
The nation’s oldest city, Tainan was founded nearly 400 years ago when urban settlements gathered around two Dutch strongholds — Fort Zeelandia, also known as Anping Fort (安平古堡), and Fort Provintia, also known as the Chihkan Tower (赤崁樓), Academia Sinica’s Institute of Taiwan History said in a press release.
Studies about Taiwan during the Dutch colonial era mainly come from the East India Co’s records, but the latest discovery could shed some light on the period’s history from a civilian perspective, Menno Leenstra, a researcher at the Netherlands-based Centre for International Heritage Activities, told a news conference at the institute.
Photo: CNA
The trove consists of about 35 documents originally owned by an East India Co employee named Nicasius de Hooghe, who was tasked with measuring Zeelandia’s streets from 1643 to 1647 until he left Taiwan, Leenstra said.
On the way back to his home in Amsterdam, De Hooghe, along with his wife and one of his two sons, died in an accident.
His surviving son was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Romeyn de Hooghe, and notary Sebastiaan van der Piet, Leenstra said.
While searching the family archives preserved by the notary about three years ago, Leenstra said he discovered accounts about the De Hooghe family’s stay in Taiwan and an inventory of the lost city plan.
The discovery was unexpected because he had been conducting studies about dodos, an extinct bird, to gather information about Asian shipping activities in that era, he added.
Judging from the documents, some of the most prominent Chinese merchants in Zeelandia did not migrate directly from China’s coastal provinces, but from various places in Southeast Asia, institute assistant research fellow Cheng Wei-chung (鄭維中) said.
Hoklo was the main language of the Chinese inhabitants, but many could also speak Malaysian or Japanese, Cheng said, adding that Portuguese and Spanish were also common among Dutch migrants.
Due to limited sources, a majority of Taiwan’s architectural studies start from the 18th century, during the Qing Dynasty, but the newly found documents can help historians reconstruct buildings as early as the 17th century, said Huang En-yu (黃恩宇), an assistant professor at National Cheng Kung University’s Department of Architecture.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS