The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

In Part 2, we continue in the footsteps of the cultured Austrian traveler Adolf Fischer on his 1898 journey in Japanese-ruled Taiwan. From the commercial enclave of Tōa-tiū-tiâⁿ (Dadaocheng), we cruise downriver to Tamsui (Danshui), meet the famed missionary George Mackay, hear warnings about rebels in the nearby hills, and solve a crocodile mystery.

After overcoming Japanese suspicions that he might be a spy for the German Kaiser, Fischer heads south to Shinchiku (Hsinchu). Drawing on his 1900 book, “Wanderings Through Formosa,” we get sharp, sometimes surprising observations about the early years of Japanese rule.

(The book was specially translated from into English for Formosa Files, and we enjoyed it so much that we had to make it a three-parter).

The first in a special three-part series, this is a Taiwan travel account never before told in English. Formosa Files has had Streifzüge durch Formosa (1900) translated into English.


This travelogue, Wanderings Through Formosa, describes a journey through Japanese-ruled Taiwan in the spring of 1898 by Adolf Fischer, a cultured, sharp-tongued Austrian traveler.

It offers a vivid outsider’s view of the island less than three years after Japan took control. What he found here was quite different from the standard glossy images we usually associate with the Japanese colonial period.

And we throw in a bonus mystery (plus solution) about the vanishing German consulate in Dadaocheng.

From “Muddy Ditch” in Chiayi County, Lu Ch’ing-an (1944–2011) rose to national fame as Taiwan’s Father of Motorcycle Stunts. The story starts with an apprenticeship at a local scooter repair shop, where the mechanically gifted boy fell in love with motorbikes.

Still a teenager, he was inspired by the ROC Air Force’s Thunder Tigers aerobatics team to start flying on two wheels. Over the next few decades, he would amaze audiences and break records. His biggest triumph came in 1983, when he jumped over 14 large buses, surpassing the mark held by Evel Knievel.

Lu also undertook some punishing endurance rides, including the first motorcycle circumnavigation of Taiwan in under 24 hours. Behind the accolades and headlines, however, was the heavy physical and personal toll of crashes.

The Cold War is heating up as the CIA continues to build a “Third Force” – a democratic alternative to both Mao’s Communists and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. A secret army is being trained on the islands of Okinawa and Saipan. But when these Chinese special forces are dropped inside the PRC to gather information and organize anti-communist guerrillas, there is a grim reckoning. Most perished. Built on a house of cards of faulty intelligence, this ambitious covert project would quickly and quietly collapse. It is, however, a riveting story and one with valuable, evergreen lessons.

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Standard histories tell us that after fleeing to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek became America’s staunch Cold War ally – an immovable figure with an iron grip on Fortress Formosa. But behind the scenes, parts of the U.S. government were quietly exploring ways to push him aside. Today we uncover a little-known CIA effort to build a “Third Force” – a democratic alternative to both Mao’s Communists and Chiang’s Nationalists. From whispered WWII assassination plots to secret Cold War schemes involving breakaway Chinese generals and hidden training camps, it’s such a riveting story we’ll need two episodes to tell it properly.

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