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The shape of Taiwan resembles a sweet potato. People on the island are always proud of having the spirit of sweet potato, i.e. firm and indomitable Sweet potato and Taiwan have inseparable relations. Regardless of the days when people came to Taiwan for pioneering in Ching Dynasty or lacking strategic commodities during the Japanese occupation period, sweet potato faithfully accompanied the Taiwanese people to get through the hard time. To many Taiwanese, sweet potato is an unforgettable memory. |
Taiwanese people are always proud of bearing the spirit of sweet potato
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Sweet potato is one of the media that connects Taiwan to the rest of the world.
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Nevertheless, sweet potato is not the native product of Taiwan. Actually it is the plant through generations’ alternation through aborigines, Chinese, Spaniard and the Dutch for hundreds of years. In other words, sweet potato is one of the media to connect Taiwan to the rest of the world. It witnessed the vicissitude of this island. We can catch a glimpse of Taiwan’s development from sweet potato’s spreading process in Taiwan. |
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When was sweet potato introduced to Taiwan? There are varied opinions. The mostly general statements are as follows:
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(1) In the middle of the 16th century, it was brought in by the Chinese pirates who fled to Taiwan.
(2) In the end of the 16th century, it was carried to Taiwan by fishermen of Fujian, China.
(3) During the Dutch ruling period, it was brought in by the immigrants from Fujian.
(4) In 1661, it was brought in when General Cheng-Gong Zheng came to Taiwan.
(5) In the beginning of the 18th century, it was introduced by the immigrants from Fujian.
(6) The aborigines brought in from other places.
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Sweet potato was the Relief commodity when Cheng-Gong Zheng arrived n Taiwan in 1661
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The first statement above related sweet potato to the pirates Dow-Qian Lin, Feng Lin, et. Al. who fled to Taiwan. However, sweet potato had not yet been introduced to China at this time; it was impossible to carry it to Taiwan by the Han people. The second and third statements above were the most common ones. It said that the Taiwanese sweet potato came from China. In view of the similarity of environment and weather, Taiwanese sweet potato was very likely to be brought in by the Fujian fishermen or merchants. As for the fourth and fifth statements above, the timeframe was incorrect. According to what was recorded in history book, when General Cheng-Gong Zheng arrived at Taiwan with a lot of troops in 1661, he did collect sweet potato from civilians due to insufficiency of food. Thus, sweet potato should have been planted earlier in Taiwan.
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The last statement above, the aborigines introduced sweet potato to Taiwan, is to some extent plausible. The Polynesians had already had sweet potato before the western people arrived at the the islands of the Pacific Ocean. As the aborigines of Taiwan and the Polynesians speak the same southern island language, it is possible that sweet potato was introduced to Taiwan from overseas via the aborigines’ hands and they started to plant it before the Han people arrived in Taiwan. However, this is just an inference that lacks concrete evidence.
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It is possible that sweet potato was introduced to Taiwan from overseas via the aborigines’ hands and they started to plant it before the Han people arrived in Taiwan
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The first record concerning Taiwanese sweet potato was in 《The Account about the Eastern Aboriginal State》 |
As for the official literature, the first record concerning Taiwanese sweet potato is from《The account about Eastern Aboriginal State》 written by Di Chen. Di Chen was born in Lian-Jiang of Fujian who was a scholar and traveler working for Ji-Guang Qi, a famous general who fought against the Japanese pirates. When he was 66 years old, he accompanied You-Rong Shen, a famous general who received the order from the Ming Dynasty to exterminate the Japanese pirates. After winning the war, in order to avoid the infestation along the coast in Fujian, Di Chen went to Taiwan, a place was called “The Eastern Aboriginal State”, along with General Shen to clear up the remaining confederates. At that time, he completed《The Account about Eastern Aboriginal State》writing down his observation on Taiwan. |
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When talking about Taiwan’s specialties in《The Account about Eastern Aboriginal State》, Di Chen mentioned there were spring onion, ginger and sweet potato as vegetables and there were rice, soybean, linseed and the Job's tears as cereals. Di Chen classified sweet potato under vegetable and not cereal. It was obvious that sweet potato wasn’t the major food of the Pingpu tribe. Nonetheless, we speculate that sweet potato must have occupied a considerably large planting area so that Di Chen could notice its existence. This is the earliest witness report related to Taiwanese sweet potato.
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