BOOK: Ruiping YE, The Colonisation and Settlement of Taiwan, 1684-1945 : Land Tenure, Law and Qing and Japanese Policies (London: Routledge, 2018). ISBN 9780815394716, £115.00

(Source: Routledge)

Routledge has published a new book comparing the Chinese Qing and Japanese colonial administration of Taiwan.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The dispossession of indigenous peoples by conquest regimes remains a pressing issue. This book, unlike most other books on the subject, contrasts two different colonial administrations – first the Chinese Qing Empire, then, from 1895, the Japanese. It shows how , under the Chinese legal system, the Qing employed the Chinese legal system to managed the relationship between the increasing numbers of Han Chinese settlers and the indigenous peoples, and how, although the Qing regime took no and refrained from taking actions to transform aboriginal land tenure, and how nevertheless Chinese settlers were able to manipulate aboriginal land tenure to their advantage. It goes on to examine the very different approach of the Japanese colonial administration, which following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had begun to adopt a Western legal framework, demonstrating how this was intentionally much more intrusive, and how the Japanese modernized legal framework significantly disrupted aboriginal land tenure. Based on extensive original research, the book provides important insights into colonisation, different legal traditions and the impact of colonial settlement on indigenous peoples.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Ruiping Ye is a lecturer in law at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction.

1. Land Settlement: Progression and Pattern.

2. Settlement Polices: Reluctant Expansion.

3. Aboriginal Land: Recognition and Protection.

4. Chinese Practice: Transforming Aboriginal Land Tenure.

5. Aborigines’ Efforts: A Losing Battle.

6. Japanese Colonisation: New Tenure under the Modern Law.

Conclusion: Land Tenure, Colonisation, and Legal Tradition

More information here