Fort Santo Domingo

When I first learned Taiwanese history on my own in college, I learned about Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsui as a Spanish fort in the early seventeenth century. With today's visit, I learned that the fort was used as a British consulate office since the Second Opium War (or called the Arrow War, 1856-1860), when the Manchu Qing government designated Tamsui as a treaty port, until 1971/1972. The fort was reconstructed in the late nineteenth century. It was built in a strategic place, with the view of the mouth of Tamsui River.

Tamsui's treaty-port status made possible George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian missionary, in establishing one of the first girls' schools in Taiwan, Tamsui. He married Tiuⁿ Chhang-miâ 張聰明, a Taiwanese woman. Today, the town of Tamsui has his bust statue near the Tamsui Old Street, a famous tourist place.

Today, Fort Santo Domingo has become a museum of Tamsui's history. Through the history of Tamsui, one gets a sense of Taiwan as a strategic place for European and Asian powers to compete for economic interests: Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, French, British, and Japanese. With the historical narrative at Tamsui Museum and the question/advice of one of my qualifying exam committee members, I am thinking harder on how to talk about and think about Taiwan as an important island that tells a wonderful transnational history. Because of Taiwan's history and immigration patterns, Taiwan is a bridge between East Asia, the Pacific islands, and Southeast Asia. Can I, will I, find a way to discuss Taiwan as a bridge, as a transnational place?