<Formosa Betrayed>

• Introduction to the book and author

Author: George Henry Kerr (January 7, 1911 - August 27, 1992) was an American diplomat, writer and scholar who had a profound influence on Taiwan's history.

1. Early Life and Educational Background: George Henry Kerr was born in Pennsylvania, USA on January 7, 1911. He later studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a master's degree in East Asian Studies in 1937. His research focuses on Japanese imperialism and Taiwan.

2. Early diplomatic career: In 1937, George Henry Kerrentered the U.S. diplomatic service and began his diplomatic career. He was sent to Taiwan under Japanese rule and served as cultural attaché at the U.S. Consulate in Taipei, which gave him an in-depth understanding of Taiwanese society and culture.

3. George Henry Kerr's research on Taiwan history and his book "Formosa Betrayed" have a profound impact on future generations' understanding of Taiwan's modern history. With his keen observation and detailed records, he allowed the world to see Taiwan's tragic events in 1947, and became an important figure in the study of Taiwan's history.

Translator: Chen Rongcheng

1. Childhood Experience and Japanese Rule: Pu Zijiao, Chiayi, born in 1937

2. School life and political turmoil: When he was in elementary school, he witnessed the February 28 Incident in 1947 and the subsequent violent suppression. These events had a profound impact on his teenage years.

3. Established the World Federation for Taiwan Independence (WUFI). He was responsible for propaganda and took the pen name Xu Zhengyi.

4. Academic and Political Activities: In 1962, he went to the United States to study for a political degree, became one of the founders of the Taiwanese Public Affairs Association (FAPA), and translated George Kerr's "Taiwan Betrayed" into Chinese.

5. Then start engaging in business activities.

• Content summary

1. The author was an eyewitness to the February 28th Incident in 1947. He was working at the U.S. Consulate in Taipei at the time. He witnessed the process of the Taiwanese people's resistance to the Nationalist Government and recorded the Nationalist Government's brutal suppression of the Taiwanese people.

• Personal opinion

1. Reading difficulty: ★★★★

Personally, I feel that the writing techniques of some chapters in the whole book are different, and you need to be a little familiar with the writing method to make it easier to read.

2. Special feature: Most of the books I have read before were written by Taiwanese. Every time I read a scene about Taiwanese being bullied, I always feel bad. However, the perspective of this book is an American. The same incident happened from the perspective of an American. But we look at things from different angles and have different observations.

Others: If I had to summarize it in three points, I would say that what impressed me most was: the American perspective, the chief executive’s decision-making, and the Chiang family. Throughout the book, you can easily see how Americans viewed Taiwan at that time from various events, and you can also easily feel the difficult role of American in various conflicts. While reading, various inner dialogues such as "Ah~ so that's it", "really?!", "Sure enough" and "No wonder" will appear from time to time. In addition, the first half of the book contains a more detailed description of the decision-making behavior of the chief executive at that time. When reading with the students, the students also made comments "too ridiculous". Perhaps after reading the whole book, they were over trivial events. I can't remember them all, but the surprise and sadness will stay with you for a long time. There are more descriptions of the Chiang family in this period of history in the middle and later parts of the book. There is a lot of knowledge that we have not learned in the classroom, and the reasons are worthy of our deep thought.

This is one of the few books that I have been eager to read recently, but couldn't read it quickly.

Sometimes I think that I really didn’t learn history well when I was a child, and now I need to put so much effort for it.

As for the students who are younger than us, I wonder if they are interested in the idea of ​​"learning from the past to understand the present".

<被出賣的台灣>

一、書本與作者介紹

作者：葛超智（George Henry Kerr，1911年1月7日－1992年8月27日）是一位美國外交官、作家和學者，對台灣歷史有深遠影響。

1. 早年生活與教育背景：葛超智於1911年1月7日出生於美國賓夕法尼亞州，他後來在加州大學伯克利分校學習，並於1937年獲得東亞研究的碩士學位。他的研究集中在日本帝國主義以及台灣。

2. 早期外交生涯：1937年，葛超智進入美國外交服務，開始了他的外交生涯。他被派往日本統治下的台灣，並在台北擔任美國領事館的文化專員，這讓他對台灣的社會和文化有了深入的了解。

3. 葛超智對台灣歷史的研究和他的著作《Formosa Betrayed》對於後世了解台灣近代史有著深遠的影響。他以敏銳的觀察和詳細的紀錄，讓世界看到了台灣在1947年的悲劇性事件，成為研究台灣歷史的重要人物。

譯者：陳榮成

1. 幼年經歷與日本統治：出生於1937年嘉義朴子腳

2. 學校生活與政治動盪：小學時親眼目睹了1947年發生的二二八事件及其後續的暴力鎮壓，這些事件對他的少年時期影響深遠。

3. 成立了世界台灣獨立聯盟（WUFI），他負責文宣並取筆名許正義。

4. 學術與政治活動：1962年赴美攻讀政治學位，成為台灣人公共事務會（FAPA）的創辦人之一，並翻譯了George Kerr的《被出賣的台灣》成為漢譯本。

5. 而後開始從事商業活動。

   
   

二、內容摘要

1. 作者是1947年二二八事件的親歷者，他當時在美國駐台北領事館工作，目睹了台灣人反抗國民政府的過程，並紀錄了國民政府對台灣人的殘酷鎮壓

   
   

三、個人觀點

1. 閱讀難易度：★★★★

   個人感受整本書部分章節寫作手法不同，需要稍微熟悉一下寫法才比較容易閱讀

2. 特別之處：先前讀過的書籍多由台灣人撰寫，每次讀到台灣人被欺負的片段總是氣得牙癢癢的，而這本書的視角是一位美國人，同一事件，但看事情的角度不同、觀察到的點也不同。

3. 其他：如果要用三個點總結，我會說讓我印象最深刻的是：美國人觀點、行政長官決策和旁觀蔣家人。全書可以輕易地從各種大小事件中看出當時美國人是怎麼看台灣的、也可以輕易地感受到在各個衝突中，美國的為難角色。閱讀期間，時不時會出現「啊～原來是這樣」、「真的假的」「果然」「難怪」的各種自我內心對話。除此之外，前半部分對於當時行政長官的決策行為有更仔細的描述，與學生共讀時，學生也不時做出「太扯了」的評論，也許整本書讀完後因為瑣碎事件過多無法一一記得，但驚訝參雜著難過感卻會伴隨著你好久、好久一段時間。而書中大約中後段有更多對於蔣家人在這段歷史中的描述，有許多我們未曾從教室中習得的知識，而其中原因，也值得我們好好深思。

   
   

這是近期少數我急著想讀完，卻又快不起來的書籍。 有時候會想，自己小時候的歷史真的沒學好，現在才會需要用這麼多的力氣去補這些洞，

而比我們更年輕的學子們，不知是不是對仍「鑑古知今」這樣的觀點感興趣。

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