I dont believe they sprouted off an island out of nowhere, so where were their ancestors from?
2007-05-16 18:34:10 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Kudos to JS who ever you are - I hope you get Best Answer!
However sadly most of the answers to this question were grossly inadequate or incorrect.
The first (KNOWN) settlers on Taiwan were probably Austronesian speakers. This means they spoke a language of the Austronesian family NOT that they were Malays or Javanese! The survivng descendants of those settlers still live in the middle of Taiwan.
Given that Taiwan is on the Sunda shelf and would have been above water during the Ice age there may have been other earlier settlers we have as yet not find traces of?
Many archaeologists believe the Polynesian migration out into the South Pacific begun at Taiwan.
Centuries later people begun once again to come over to the island from the mainland. They were probably from Southern China and settled on the coast at first.
There were other migrants over the centureis continuously.
The local Taiwanese dialect is a form of MIN and related to the dialects of Fujian also known as Hokkienese or Hokkien but not all modern Taiwanese had ancestors from Fujian province.
There was a major wave of migration at the end of the Ming dynasty with people fleeing the Manchu.
There was another at the end of WW2 when the communists took over the mainland.
Look up Bellwood!
2007-05-16 21:10:12 · answer #1 · answered by J V 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I see many here do not really know the history of this "beautiful island", or Ilha Formosa. Many of the Han Chinese that now populate this island (and not the original native inhabitants such as the A Mei tribe) came from Fujian Province (and some from the other provinces near Fujian) in China. They were Chinese. They make up the majority of Taiwan's population today. They call themselves Taiwanese. They didn't "sprout off an island", they came from the mainland on ships.
2007-05-17 03:14:44 · answer #2 · answered by WMD 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Haha. There were aborigines that settled in Taiwan a long time ago. How they got there, your guess is as good as mine. They probably swam/got shipwrecked there from the Asian continent.
The Taiwanese today are the Chinese who left with Chiang Kai-Shek after they lost against Mao Zedong and his communist forces for the rule of mainland China, circa 1949.
There is still debate whether Taiwan is its own country. The Taiwanese claim they are independent, the Chinese deny it. Since China holds military and economic strength in the world today, China gets heard.
2007-05-17 01:45:47 · answer #3 · answered by Mesrour 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
In brief: Prior, during and after world war 2 China was fighting a civil war. The communist vs the nationalist, well Mao won and Kai-shek lead his defeated people south to the island of Taiwan in 1949. That is the genesis of the current situation in a nut shell.
2007-05-17 01:43:54 · answer #4 · answered by Rational Humanist 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
The Malay and Javanese were the first settlers, but they were pretty much over-run by the Chinese on two mass migrations - the mass migration that happened during the Great Famine (16th Century) and the migration of Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist supporters after the Chinese civil war.
2007-05-17 03:36:27 · answer #5 · answered by sayhello 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Some were there before the Chinese arrived:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan#History
2007-05-17 01:41:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Taiwanese are Chinese
2007-05-17 01:41:29 · answer #7 · answered by artgal1285 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
china...these were people who left china coz they didn't want communism...which is why taiwan is following democracy
2007-05-17 01:57:03 · answer #8 · answered by ineedinformation 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
china
2007-05-17 05:50:08 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋