The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/19
By: Steven Crook

Taiwan’s southern half is a stronghold of Taiwanese Holo culture, and it’s where you will

Photo Credit：美濃愛鄉協進會提供

find the ancient former capital, Tainan, as well as Kaohsiung. At the same time, the south has intriguing pockets of Hakka culture and tradition waiting to be explored.

These days, Taiwan is one of the safest places in the world for tourists and expatriates. But it wasn’t always so peaceful. Uprisings were frequent, while settlers battled indigenous people for control of the best land. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Taiwan was rocked by a series of rebellions, and because there was no police force as such, many communities established militias to keep their enemies at bay.

Fighters from Hakka towns in the south gained a reputation for bravery when helping imperial troops defeat rebels opposed to the Qing Dynasty (which ruled Taiwan between 1684 and 1895). These loyalists formed six units (liudui in Chinese), and because of them “Liudui” is now a collective name for the Hakka settlements in Kaohsiung and Pingtung.    [FULL  STORY]