Latest / The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files
The “First” Chinese Person to Visit Taiwan - Chen Di 陳第 (1603) - S4-E30
400 Years: Dutch Formosa - part oneOf 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…
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