Formosa contra Taiwan

[Luis M. Chong L.]

Dear Colleagues:

Regarding to the name "Formosa" for the island presently known as "Taiwan", this is an abbreviated form from an exclamatory remark by a Portuguese sailor during the Sixteen Century, when a small flotilla of ships from the Portuguese Crown was passing near the coast of the Island. Reputedly, upon seeing the lush green island after months of sea and sky, he exclaimed: "Ilha Formosa", meaning a "beautiful island". After that incident, the first users of that name were the Spaniards, which occupied briefly the island until being expelled by the Dutch. The Spanish Crown occupied the Northern part of the island and the Dutch the Southern part. A sort of tacit agreement was reached upon the two Imperial powers. But, later, the Dutch united with some aboriginal tribes of the island and drove out the Spaniards. The Spanish Governor was arrested and sent to Batavia (today's Indonesia) as a prisoner of war.
Taiwan is the Chinese name for the island, its origins could be traced into the Sung Dinasty. Before that, there was several other names. It's believed that the term is derived from the shape of the island viewed from some places nearby. The Chinese meaning is a "gulf of the terrace" or "terrace on the sea". There is a theory saying that the name came after some aboriginal tribes living here on the past (the Tahouans),
During the Japanese occupation period, the name Formosa was used as a convenience name. In Japanese, the island was known as the "Taiwan province" and Formosa was used in foreign languages. This has been always the practice, even during the Chinese administration of the island before and after the Japanese occupation. Formosa was used as a convenience traslation for Taiwan in all foreign language texts until the 1950s, when a nationalist obsession engulfed all China and insisted in calling all Chinese things in Chinese. From that time on, all the foreign translations for the name of the island have been using Taiwan instead of Formosa. However, Formosa is still mentioned in Scientic papers because quite a lot of materials (including type specimens) collected before bear this name. I myself have many pre-1960 materials that is registered as Formosa.

Luis M. Chong L.
Lab. of Entomology
Dept. of Biology, CNSC
P.O. Box 30-250
Taipei, Taiwan, China



 ---- you wrote:

> >Dear colleagues,
> >
> >sometime the island and state called  Taiwan and sometime is called Formosa
> >even by the same author, what is the difference?
>


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