Contents in detail
Chronology	xxv
Preface (Chinese)	xxix
Preface (English)	xxix
I  THE ERA OF GLOBAL NAVIGATION
Ihla Formosa: A New Name	1
A Pirate Base	2
An Aboriginal Nation?	3
The Name Taiwan	4
The Spanish Flag	5
The Dutch Flag	6
Dutch Colonial Profit	8
Revolts	9
Cheng Ch'eng-kung and the Ming Flight	10
Formosa, the Ming Invasion	11
Cheng's Death	13
Summary Thought	14
II  THE CH'ING ERA
Trouble Within	19
The Empire Strikes	20
Ch'ing Debate	21
The Ch'ing's Passive Formosan Policy	22
Additional Prohibitions	23
Cyclical Revolts Every Three to Five Years	23
In-fighting between Classes and Groups of People	24
American and European Interest	26
Japanese Interest Revives	27
Changes in the Ch'ing Formosan Policy	30
The French Flag, a Brief Moment	31
Provincial Status	31
The Return of a Passive Policy	32
A Brief Flirtation with Democracy	33
Taiwan's Value for Japan	35
Summary Thought	36
III  THE JAPANESE ERA
The Japanese Flag	39
The Collapse of Taiwan's Republic	40
Bandits?	41
Laying the Foundations of Japanese Rule	42
Examining Cultural Practices	43
Infrastructure Development	44
Changing Forms of Resistance	46
Using the System	47
A Sense of Taiwanese Culture	49
Other Social Movements	50
Taiwan's Communist Party	51
The Mu-Sha Affair and the Aborigines	52
World War II Interrupts All	54
Independence after the War?	56
Summary Thought	57
IV  THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
From the Frying Pan into the Fire?	61
The 2-28 Affair	62
Overseas Independence Movements	64
The Republic of China on Taiwan	65
The Korean War and the Fate of the ROC	66
The Last Battle?	68
An Unresolved Status	68
The Hand Writing on the Wall?	70
Developments and Stories to be Written	71
A Coming to Terms with the Past	72
Unfinished Business	74
One Year and Counting	75
Summary Thought	76
Epilogue	79

About the Authors:

April C.J. Lin Ph.D. is a History Professor at Tamkang University. She majored in the history of Japan and Taiwan.

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D. is a Literature Professor at National Taipei University. He has lived and worked in Taiwan for the past thirteen years and writes extensively about the island and its people.

From the inside jacket of the book:

Taiwan (Ihla Formosa) has long experienced the fate and of being an "island in the stream." Caught up and by numerous historical, cultural and physical crosscurrents running between the East and South China Seas, the people of this island have struggled with identity and survival. Outside forces have had their shaping influence. Strong also has been the influence of the island's many immigrants and indigenous peoples. Taiwan's history is a story of struggle and adaptation. In the new millennium the people have directly elected a new president in a democratic transference of power; but the island faces new challenges, that of membership in the United Nations and the World Trade Organization and the unresolved "one China question" with the People's Republic of China.

From the back cover: Did you know the United States once considered making Taiwan a protectorate? Is location the reason why the flags of five separate countries have flown over Taiwan? Did you know that Taiwan was once its own Republic and had its own flag? Could you describe the flag? Can an island nation like Palau with a population of only 19,000 vote in the United Nations on matters that affect the 23,000,000 people of Taiwan? Island in the Stream provides answers to these and other questions of Taiwan's complex past. At the same time it raises deeper questions on the issues of sovereignty, self-determination and a nation's identity.