Private Culture Tours of Taiwan

Taiwan’s success as a manufacturing powerhouse since the mid-20th century has so dominated the island’s story that it obscures two important truths. One is that Taiwan is a fabulously scenic island with striking mountain ranges and ecologically-rich forests. The other is that Taiwan’s geographical position and history have resulted in stunning cultural wealth and diversity.

It’s sometimes said that, unlike Japan (think of anime) and South Korea (K-Pop and TV dramas), Taiwan has had zero cultural impact on other countries. This ignores both the recent popularity of Taiwanese entertainers in Southeast Asia and the island’s position as the prehistoric fountainhead of Austronesia. At least 3,500 years ago — long before Chinese people established themselves in Taiwan — its Austronesian inhabitants were sailing outrigger canoes and catamarans across the Pacific, founding settlements in Micronesia and Polynesia. Linguistic research suggests that modern Austronesian languages can be divided into ten branches. Nine of them are spoken only in Taiwan; the other comprises over 1,200 languages spoken as far away as New Zealand, Hawaii, and Madagascar.

Whether you look at Taiwan’s past and argue it was ‘on the periphery of China’ or ‘the nexus of maritime empires’, there’s no doubt that every force which has controlled the island has added new elements to its culture. Several toponyms are derived from place names used by Taiwan’s original inhabitants, the Austronesian indigenous tribes who now account for just 2.6 percent of the population. The jia, a unit of land measurement slightly smaller than a hectare, dates from when the Dutch East India Company ruled Tainan. During the Ming-Cheng and Qing eras, from 1662 to 1895, migrants from the Chinese mainland brought with them their gods, their marriage and naming traditions, their farming practices — and a deep suspicion of anyone hailing from a different county or province that’s hard to believe given the warm hospitality their descendants now show tourists.

The majority of these migrants hailed from a handful of counties in Fujian, the Chinese province closest to Taiwan. Others, whose descendants now account for around a seventh of the population, were Hakka; this sub-ethnic group is considered Han Chinese yet has its own customs. Hakka families, for instance, never bound their daughters’ feet. Even now, Hakka clans living in Miaoli and Hsinchu still speak their own dialects.

A generous helping of China, a dash of Japan

China’s surrender of Taiwan to Japan in 1895 was a watershed. Almost overnight, the island went from being a neglected (and somewhat despised) backwater of a vast but inward- and backward-looking empire to resource-rich real estate on which an emerging and ambitious power could demonstrate that it deserved the respect of the Western world.

The first wave of officials assigned to govern Taiwan found an island almost totally bereft of roads, railways, and modern institutions. Many of the most elegant buildings now standing in Taipei, Hsinchu, and Tainan were in fact erected by the Japanese between the world wars. They hoped that impressive public structures would double as ‘soldiers in civilian clothes’ — that architectural landmarks such as what’s now the Office of the President might convince the local population that their Japanese masters were both wise and invincible. Other colonial-era buildings worth visiting include Tainan’s former city hall (now the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature) and the surviving parts of Taichung’s old jail complex.

Japanese rule impacted every facet of life on the island. The economy made rapid progress but the indigenous people lost control of their woodlands and hunting grounds. Many Taiwanese received a modern education; even more gained access to proper healthcare. Miso soup and japonica rice became everyday foods. Today, when a member of the Hoklo majority speaks the vernacular language (which is related to yet distinct from Mandarin Chinese), they often use words of Japanese origin: phan (bread), bi-lu (beer), o-to-bai (motorcycle), and so on.

Despite Japan’s best efforts, the Shinto religion never established a real foothold in Taiwan. After World II, the 200-odd Shinto shrines that’d been built at the behest of the colonial authorities were either demolished or repurposed. Some became memorials to KMT (Chinese Nationalist) martyrs, notably the one that stands atop Tiger Head Mountain in Taoyuan, not far from Taiwan’s main international airport. One ended up housing a post office sub-branch. Perhaps the most striking former Shinto place of worship is an alluring set of ruins just above the characterful former mining town of Jinguashi. A more profane side of Japan — that of onsen-style hot springs and nighttime entertainment — shaped the Taipei neighbourhood now known as Xinbeitou.

Government backing for the arts

Unlike the Chinese mainland, where Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution laid waste to tangible antiquities and intangible traditions, Taiwan after World War II was a society in which China’s classical culture enjoyed official support. Subsequent governments have continued to back cultural development via gleaming new facilities like the National Taichung Theater and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (aka Weiwuying). These venues host concerts, operas, and dramas by international and local artists.

Among the 2.2 million people who left the mainland and settled in Taiwan between 1946 and 1955 were numerous artists, scholars, writers, and religious leaders. Pampered by Chiang Kai-shek’s regime as it endeavoured to portray itself as the legitimate government of China, many of these accomplished individuals took up posts in Taiwan’s universities, where they trained the next generation of essayists, ink-wash painters, and Beijing Opera performers. Others went on to establish key institutions such as Fo Guang Shan and Dharma Drum Mountain; both of these organisations — based in Greater Kaohsiung and near Keelung, respectively — are excellent places to understand the role Buddhism plays in modern society.

Around the time of Chiang’s retreat, China’s finest treasures and art works were spirited across the sea to Taiwan. As soon as the National Palace Museum (NPM) was reestablished on the outskirts of Taipei in 1965, it was lauded as one of the world’s very finest repositories of artefacts. Even if you’re coming to find true Taiwan rather than traces of China, we urge you to consider allocating a half day so you can see the delicate carved jades and exquisite paintings exhibited inside.

The NPM (which nowadays has a Southern Branch near Chiayi) is far from the only worthwhile museum on the island. The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung holds fascinating works by Taiwanese artists, including some based overseas. Building on the private collection of one of Taiwan’s richest businessmen, Tainan’s Chimei Museum offers an eclectic and eccentric range of stuffed animals, musical instruments, and mediaeval weapons. It sounds like it shouldn’t work — but somehow it does, and many visitors leave utterly entranced.

Some say that Taiwan is ‘more Chinese than China’ and there’s a good bit of truth in this, even if you ignore the NPM. At the same time, however, this narrative irritates Taiwanese who think their country should be judged on its own merits. They’re right in at least one sense: Taiwan offers so much to culture vultures and museum mavens that the issue isn’t how to fill their time but instead how to devise an itinerary that won’t leave out anything important.

We at Life of Taiwan always advise prospective clients against turning their holidays into a series of sprints. That said, there’s no denying that travelling with one of our talented driver-guides will give you a huge advantage when it comes to making the most of your precious time. If your arrival at a temple coincides with that of a ritual troupe, you’ll have the flexibility to linger a while longer than planned. Not in the mood for the museum you’ve got pencilled in? Maybe we can take you somewhere nearby to enjoy the sunset.

A dynamic and evolving culture

There’s another reason why ‘more Chinese than China’ slogans don’t come close to summarising Taiwanese culture in the 21st century. The island has been a multi-party democracy since 1987. Well before that, non-party candidates were able to challenge the KMT in mayoral and legislative elections. Some of them were even allowed to win.

Dissenting voices and fearless critics have nudged the culture in directions that are unimaginable on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. In 2019, for instance, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Thanks to pressure from animal-welfare advocates, certain religious practices have been reformed. There’s been huge progress in terms of gender equality: Since 2000, women have been elected president and vice-president, and currently they hold 41.6 percent of seats in the island’s parliament.

Unique religious practices

In tens of thousands of halls of worship across the island, Taiwanese popular religion (also called folk religion) is practised seven days a week. While certain days are far busier than others, at a major shrine like Longshan Temple in Taipei’s Wanhua District or Tainan’s sublime Great Queen of Heaven Temple, you’re certain to see people sacrificing incense to the gods, making offerings, engaging in prayer and/or meditation, and finally burning joss paper (often called ‘ghost money’).

The strength of religious sentiment surprises and intrigues many outsiders. But without the assistance of a knowledgeable local (or a considerable amount of background reading) it can be mystifying to say the least.

When touring a shrine, any guide worth their salt can explain rituals and point out details you might otherwise miss: A person undergoing shoujing (a rite which the faithful believe can soothe the soul of a traumatised person); beam paintings that show, instead of the usual scenes from Chinese mythology, modern-day Taiwanese sporting heroes; and a doll-sized effigy that represents an 18th-century tax collector, deified on account of his incorruptibility and fairness. And afterwards your guide can introduce some of the street foods and ‘little eats’ for which the town is famous.

Christians are a small minority in Taiwan, barely one in twenty. Nevertheless, the island has some striking Christian halls of worship, perhaps the most memorable being Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Yanshui, a small town between Tainan and Chiayi. The interior is nothing short of astonishing. As colourful as the most elaborate folk shrine, it features a breathtaking stylization of Christian symbols.

Tainan: Former capital and bastion of tradition

If you’ve not visited Tainan you’ve not been to Taiwan. It goes without saying that, because we’re a Tainan-based outfit, we at Life of Taiwan might be a tad biassed — but we’re not the only ones who say the ancient southern city is the cultural heart of the island, that it’s ‘Taiwan’s Kyoto’, and that it’s essential if you’re to understand this society.

Boasting several of Taiwan’s most stunning temples, a warren of beguiling alleyways, and cherished relics that date from the Dutch, Ming-Cheng, Qing, and Japanese periods, Tainan is a place to slowly savour. Much of it can be explored on foot. However, because there’s no metro and buses aren’t frequent, getting from your hotel to Anping (where the Dutch operated their trading colony from 1624 to 1662) or out to the highly-regarded National Museum of Taiwan History isn’t straightforward. For that reason — and also to benefit from the cultural insights an experienced tour leader can provide — Tainan is perhaps the one city where travellers determined to do everything themselves might want to consider using the services of a driver-guide.

Tainan’s hinterland has a number of compelling cultural attractions. Near the town of Xinhua (which has the island’s most authentic and photogenic ‘old street’ of shops), the Siraya people are campaigning for recognition as one of Taiwan’s indigenous ethnic groups. Closer to Chiayi, Nankunshen Daitainfu is a centre of Wang Ye worship within the local Taoism-folk framework. If you come here at the weekend, there’s a good chance you’ll see some extreme forms of religious devotion, such as spirit mediums who cut themselves on the face or forehead, or pierce their cheeks with long needles.

The far south

Compared to Tainan, the former fishing village of Kaohsiung is an upstart. From the 1930s onwards, the Japanese and then the KMT developed its harbour and related heavy industries. Soon it was the island’s no. 2 population centre, and on the outskirts in 1967 a monk originally from China established Fo Guang Shan, now Taiwan’s best-known Buddhist institution.

Since then, Fo Guang Shan has grown into a sprawling complex that combines halls of worship, classrooms, museums, accommodation, and vegetarian restaurants. The monumental Buddha Memorial Centre was inaugurated in 2011 to house a tooth fragment which the faithful believe belong to the Buddha himself. Retrieved from the ashes after the Buddha’s cremation 2,500 years ago, this precious relic was for centuries venerated in Tibet, then carried over the Himalaya in 1959 by an abbot as he fled the advancing Chinese Communists. You don’t have to be a Buddhist or know much about the religion to find Fo Guang Shan stimulating in both an artistic and intellectual sense.

South of Kaohsiung in Pingtung County, the town of Donggang is the venue for a spectacular triennial ritual. The King’s Ship Festival, which evolved out of ancient plague-expulsion rites, concludes with the deliberate burning of a purpose-built wooden boat. The 2024 event concludes October 5; the next festival will be in 2027.

Austronesian Taiwan

Taiwan’s Austronesian cultures survive in several remote pockets, many of which are in the eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien. Few of these places are easy to reach by public transport. Even though indigenous communities tend to be less affluent than the island’s cities, the aboriginal population is nowadays very much part of mainstream society. Visitors shouldn’t expect to see ‘primitive’ lifestyles or tribal clothing, unless there’s a festival in progress or it’s a Sunday, when many churchgoers don traditional garments. That said, with the help of a knowledgeable guide you’ll be able to learn a great deal about tribal beliefs and the traditional ecological knowledge which for generations underpinned their survival.

Hualien is also the home base of another of Taiwan’s major religious groups. The Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation engages in disaster relief and environmental protection efforts across the world; by 2024 it had an estimated 10 million members. In keeping with the religion and its reputation for tolerance, patients at its huge hospital in Hualien are provided with vegetarian meals, yet family members are allowed to bring in non-vegetarian food if requested by those undergoing treatment.

Wherever your interests lie, Life of Taiwan has the in-depth knowledge and experience to design an itinerary that’ll fascinate you from the day you arrive to the moment we part. Drop us a line today and begin planning the Taiwan private guided tour of a lifetime!