Taiwan

Taiwan or Formosa, island in East Asia, and, since the Communist victory in 1949 on the Chinese mainland, the seat of the Chinese Nationalist government (not recognized by the People's Republic of China). It is separated from the Chinese mainland by the Taiwan (Formosa) Strait and is bordered on the north by the East China Sea, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, and on the south by the South China Sea. Taiwan also encompasses a number of island groups: the P'enghu Islands or Pescadores, the small Quemoy Islands off the mainland city of Amoy (Xiamen), and the Matsu group off Fuzhou (Foochow). The People's Republic of China claims Taiwan as one of the provinces of its republic. The area of Taiwan is about 36,000 sq km (13,900 sq mi). The capital and largest city of Taiwan is T’aipei.

POPULATION

The population of Taiwan comprises three main groups: the Taiwanese (about 84 per cent), who are descendants of the Chinese who emigrated from Fujian and Guangdong provinces during the 18th and 19th centuries; the Chinese (about 14 per cent) who moved to the island after World War II; and the indigenous people of the island (2 per cent), who are perhaps related to the people of the Philippines or Indonesia. Traditionally the society has been agrarian, but by the early 1990s only about 13 per cent of the labour force worked in agriculture.

Taiwan is divided into 16 counties (hsien), 5 municipalities, and 2 special municipalities (T’aipei, the capital, and Kaohsiung). Each county is subdivided into townships (chen), rural districts or groups of villages (hsiang), and precincts.

LANGUAGE

Around 30 languages are spoken in Taiwan. The official language is Mandarin Chinese (see Chinese language), a mother tongue for around 20 per cent of the population and a second language for the majority. The official Romanization system used in Taiwan for Chinese words follows the Wade-Giles system rather than the Pinyin system used on the mainland. However, Min Nan Chinese is a mother tongue for the majority of the population, most of whom are bilingual in Mandarin Chinese. Hakka Chinese is a first language for around 11 per cent of the population, while other minority languages, mainly Aboriginal Formosan languages from the Austronesian language family, are spoken.

RELIGION

Most of the population of Taiwan practises various combinations of traditional Chinese religion (religious Daoism) and Buddhism, with additional observance of the philosophy of Confucianism. About 5 per cent of the people are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics, and fewer than 1 per cent are Muslims.