S4-E30 - The “First” Chinese Person to Visit Taiwan - Chen Di 陳第 (1603)

400 Years: Dutch Formosa - part one





Of course, Chen Di was not actually the first person
from China to visit Taiwan. What makes him special is that he
wrote an account of what he saw here in 1603, and that
account is the earliest surviving manuscript discovered thus far.


 


Chen Di's short travel commentary focuses mostly on the
Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan; their customs, diet, etc., a rare
and valuable documentation by a man who was both a scholar and a
warrior. Chen Di's account of his 1603 trip was only rediscovered
in 1955! 





Interestingly, the same year Chen Di came to Taiwan was when the
Dutch East India Company (the VOC) set up a permanent trading
post in what's now Indonesia. The Dutch are determined to break
into the China trade market - but they'll need another base.
Somewhere a bit closer.


 


 


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