Introduction

This paper explores the degree to which mortality in colonial Taiwan followed regional and/or ethnic lines of differentiation. The impact of mortality varies across many axes of human society, differentially affecting groups defined by age, sex, marital status, legitimacy status, wealth and class, educational level, and many other determinants of position in the social structure. Several of these factors are the focus of other papers in this collection. The current paper explores whether regional and ethnic differences should also be included in the list of significant determinants of mortality levels. The paper begins by exploring regional differences in mortality, and then moves to a discussion of ethnic variation. The paper provides a basis for comparison with Dutch society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries where regional and religious (rather than ‘ethnic’) differences in mortality are well known (see Engelen and Schoonheim, this volume).

High quality reporting of demographic information on the Taiwanese population in the Japanese period begins in October 1905, when the first census was conducted and a vital statistics reporting system based on household registration was inaugurated. Annual volumes of vital statistics were published through 1942 and these, along with frequent censuses provide the data for this analysis. The discussion here treats only the population of ‘islanders’ (J; hontōjin, C: bendaoren 本島人) in the terminology of the census and vital statistics, which I will refer to as ‘Taiwanese,’ and excludes the Japanese resident in the island (J: naichijin, C: neidiren 內地人).

Demographic studies of regional variation in mortality in Japanese period Taiwan are of course constrained by the kinds of data reported by regional subunits in the censuses and vital statistics (J: Taiwan jinkō dōtai tōkei 台灣人口動態統計) which are available from 1905-1942. In general, the degree of detail reported in the vital statistics varies by administrative level, with less detail at the lower levels. Vital statistics data is reported in the greatest detail at the all-island level.