Two centuries flashed by

The Tuniou Trench separating the indigenous and Han people was already surrounded by tribes and settlements

Blood and tears intertwined and sewed the glorious but bleak past of the Great Barrier

Fortunately, pieces of memories are preserved in the library

Let us decode the Hakka history through these archives

Like detectives of words

Unit 1

What are the Tan-Hsin Archives?

The Tan-Hsin Archives are the executive and judicial archives of Taiwan’s county governments. The archives include records between 1776 (41st year of Qianlong reign) and 1895 (21st year of Guangxu reign) in Tamsui Prefecture and Hsinchu County. They were handed to the Court at the beginning of the Japanese colonial era prior to being gifted to the Taihoku Imperial University for academic use.

Unit 2

Whose land is this?

The Tan-Hsin Archives recorded territorial conflicts between various ethnicities, which the officials tried to prevent by separating the conflicting parties with the Tuniou trench, barriers, and the Tuntian system. The government built the Tuniou trench to serve as a passive separation strategy in the beginning but later adopted an active position to fight back by implementing the barrier defense system. The blurry boundaries were replaced by clearly-drawn borderlines since then.

Unit 3

How to develop land in mountainous areas?

Chinese immigrants who wished to develop lands in Taiwan prepared capitals in exchange for the right to develop lands from the government or the indigenous tribes. Besides possessing private armed forces, Chinese immigrants had to recruit contracted farmers and cooperate with them during land development operations. After succeeding in developing lands, Chinese immigrants had to pay taxes to the government or the indigenous peoples.

Unit 4

What kinds of resources are available in the mountains?

In the 19th century, Taiwan’s tea and mothballs were exported all over the world by foreign merchants. A supply chain was thus formed, linking the indigenous in the mountains and the Hakka, southern Fujian immigrants, and foreign merchants in port areas together, facilitating the development in Northern Taiwan and areas adjacent to mountains.

Unit 5

 The Rise of Hakka

Women played a significant role in terms of development in Northern Taiwan. The Tan-Hsin Archives recorded stories of women toiling hard for their life. Women practically participated in land development activities in the beginning and later on ensured the continuance of a lineage by cementing family bonds and mustering family power in spite of drastic changes in policies, ruling parties, and the environment.

Unit 6

Memories of the Archives: Hakka spirit and life

The Tan-Hsin Archives recorded the 119-year history between the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Guangxu. The official documents in the Archives not only provide a peek into the power structure of the Qing government, but also reflect different aspects of life under different social classes in Taiwanese society back then. We can also see how Hakka people strived hard to settle down in Taiwan.