Abstract：
Thanks to its atypical qualities and the mystery behind its creation, the so-called ‘Selden Map’ has received plenty of academic attention following its rediscovery in 2008. This early seventeenth-century map uses seemingly traditional Chinese map-making techniques to depict Ming China, Joseon Korea, Japan, as well as maritime Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the coast lines of Southeast Asia exhibit great similarity with modern maps, unlike any other contemporary works. Taking the analysis of Ryukyu and Taiwan in this map as a case study, this article argues that Selden Map is a combined work and represents a hybrid of contemporary Overseas Chinese and European sources. Analysis on the depictions of Ryukyu and Taiwan revealed that the painter did not pay attention to these two areas, and used them only as navigation indicators for Japan. In addition, Taiwan’s waters are marked with two place names “Beigang (北港)” and “Jialilin (加里林)” which, as discussed in this article, were important ports of western Taiwan in the early seventeenth century.

Keywords：Overseas Chinese, Maritime Asia, Shipping Route, Selden Map, Cartography History

Abstract：
Studies on Taiwanese women in Manchuria have been scarce. The main reason is that Taiwanese scholars have little interest in Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet regime, even less so about Taiwanese who went there, and the least about females among them. In addition, related historical materials are scant because Taiwanese women in Manchuria at that time were mostly housewives and hence, quite unlikely to leave substantial public or official records. Only bits and pieces of information can be found in the general history of Japan and China. The materials used in this article include the Passport Record List (旅券 下付表) of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office, name lists of alumni associations of girls’ high schools, and oral history interviews of people involved. The exact number of Taiwanese women in Manchuria at that time could hardly be known and was estimated to approximate five to six hundred. Most of them went there because their husbands or relatives were there; some went as companions for sightseeing or business; only few went for work. Their average age was around thirty, the child-bearing age. They left their families/relatives back home and had to manage the entire family by themselves. Thus, some did hire help either from Taiwan or among the locals. Heavily engaged in household tasks, they had little contact with either the locals or the Japanese. Hence, it was essential for them to mingle with the Taiwanese. In addition, this article also provides information about their husbands, revealing that women who received higher education were usually married to physicians, government officials, or members of the semi-official Kokusaku Gaishia (国策会社／こくさくがいしゃ). Besides being housewives, a few of these women were physicians, and the most outstanding one was Hsieh Chiu-tzu (謝久子). She not only worked as a physician but also passed the high-level civil service examination of Manchukuo, and became the first female technical official from Taiwan. Others worked as teachers, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, and domestic helpers. Their collective experience in Manchuria as well as how they faced the upheavals of post-war Soviet intervention, the Chinese civil war, and in due course returned to their hometown are all key topics of discussion. It was in 1905 that Japan occupied Port Arthur and Dalian, and 1948 was the last year for these women to return to Taiwan; hence, this article confines its discussion to the period between 1905 and 1948.

Keywords：Manchuria, Female Taiwanese, Girls’ High School, Passport Record List

Abstract：
After the ROC government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, research topics regarding how to survive in Taiwan without the Mainland and how to build the foundation for Taiwan’s future historical development have attracted much attention. Existing economic history studies focus mainly on the latter; that is, how food policies impacted Taiwan’s economic development. As to the survival issue, the discussions presume that food policies can always be perfectly executed, so that the disparities between institution and performance are often ignored. This article takes the food system as an example, observes it in a broad context, and explains how structural factors, such as financial operations of independent national economies, interaction of different administrative agencies and stakeholders, and influence of the United States under the Cold War, caused the predicament of food system operation. As a result, corresponding countermeasures had to be adopted, illustrating the interaction between system design and practice. In the context of economic institution restructuring, the government established a system for rice supply and marketing in 1950-1953. Rice served multiple functions at that time, as a staple to meet the increasing demand of the growing population and also as an export item. With diverse administrative agencies involved, conflicts were bound to arise due to their different stances, which subsequently caused insufficient grain stock in 1952. In addition, farmers, landlords and grain merchants took advantage of the prevailing predicament to seek profits, leading to price fluctuations of rice. Faced with grain shortage, the government took the opportunity to transform the fertilizer-rice bartering system (肥料換穀). Under the new system, farmers had to pay 30% of their grain every time in exchange for fertilizers. Moreover, the government put the blame of grain shortage on the uncooperative administrative agencies. Using pressure from Chiang Kai-shek and the United States, the government established a grain budget management system, enabling the Grain Bureau (糧食局) to take the lead in grain procurement and distribution, thereby concentrating and centralizing the grain management power while eliminating constraints from other administrative agencies. In this way, a new stable institutional structure took shape, thus closing loose institutional gaps and narrowing room for manipulation.

Keywords：Food System, Grain Bureau (糧食局), Fertilizer-rice Bartering System (肥料 換穀), Food Budget, Cold War

Abstract：
This study explores the possibility of applying “Taiwan Sotokufu Personnel Directory” to research in humanities. Developed by Archives of Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, this Directory contains the staff records of the Taiwan Sotokufu during the Japanese colonial period between 1896 and 1944. The 950,000 records in the Directory are unique, continuous and integral. This research focuses on elementary school teachers with special emphasis on classification and quantitative analysis of digital records in the Directory to ensure accuracy of research. Changes in teacher composition and the elementary school education system, including primary schools, common schools, and kokumin gakko, were examined. Although application of the Directory has some limitations, the findings evidenced the usefulness of both value-added process and data mining technique for in-depth humanities research.

Keywords：Taiwan Sotokufu Personnel Directory, Elementary School Education, Japanese Colonial Period, Humanity Informatics