Proto-Nationalism and Remembering Taiwan

Qiu Fengjia (1864–1912) and Modern Education in Late Qing Guangdong

Abstract

With the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its addenda in 1895, Japan proceeded to annex the Qing Province of Taiwan. Some Han settlers of Taiwan established the Taiwan Republic to resist the Japanese takeover, but they were quickly defeated and evacuated to the mainland, where they had to reconstruct their lives and redefine their role in history. This article examines the life and activities of Qiu Fengjia (1864– 1912), arguably the most famous of the “exiles” from Taiwan. Though a leader of the Taiwan Republic, sworn to perish with it if he must, Qiu Fengjia eventually fled to Guangdong, his ancestral province, where he then had to rehabilitate his reputation. This article suggests that he successfully redeemed himself through his poetic work and especially his contributions to modern, Western-oriented education in the Chaoshan (Chaozhou and Shantou) region, his adopted home in Guangdong. By invoking the common ties of culture, geography, and language to explain why the people of Guangdong should have greater sympathy for the Taiwan Republic and why the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia should be concerned about conditions in their native province, he imagined a Chinese proto-nation that could strengthen itself against foreign imperialism through philanthropy and educational reforms.