Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Zheng Cheng Kong


Cheng Kong High School was named to remember this National hero. When you enter the school gate you will see a memorial stele immediately on your left:


Aboriginal people, who originated in Austronesia and southern China, have lived on the island of Taiwan for more than 12,000 years. Significant migration to Taiwan from the China mainland began as early as A.D. 500. Dutch traders first claimed the island in 1624 as a base for Dutch commerce with Japan and the China coast. Two years later, the Spanish established a settlement on the northwest coast of Taiwan which they occupied until 1642 when they were driven out by the Dutch. Dutch colonists administered the island and its predominantly aboriginal population until 1662. Zheng Cheng Kong attacked the Dutch forces in 1661. A naval fleet of 1000 warships landed at Lu"erman to attack  Taiwan in order to destroy and oust the Dutch from Zeelandia, the Dutch capital. Following a nine month siege, Zheng captured the Dutch Fort Zeelandia and defeated the Dutch. He then forced the local representatives of the Dutch East India Company to sign a peace treaty at Zeelandia on February first, 1662, and to leave Taiwan. The first major influx of migrants from the Chinese mainland came during this Dutch period, sparked by the political and economic chaos on the China coast during the Manchu invasion and the end of the Ming Dynasty. Zheng was two months short of 38 years old when he died in June, 1962.

Zheng's portrait is in the National Taiwan Museum:


A painting celebrated his attack of Taiwan:



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