On 19 April 1895 British Consul Lionel Charles Hopkins at the northern port of Tamsui was summoned by Tang Jingsong the governor of Taiwan to his yamen in the western district of Taipei. Shortly after his arrival Hopkins was handed a petition. Signed by a number of Taiwanese ânotablesâ the document appealed to the British government to incorporate the island into a protectorate in the wake of an impending Japanese invasion. The British declined. This book addresses the interconnectivity of these two communities by focusing on the market town of Dadaocheng in northern Taiwan. It seeks to contextualise and examine the establishment of a âsettler societyâ as well as the creation of a sojourning British community showing how they became a precursor of modernity and âmiddle classismâ there. By uncovering who the signatories of the petition were and what their motivation was to call upon the British consulate to bring the island under its protection it brings into focus a remarkable period of transition not only for the history of Taiwan but also for the modern history of China. Using 1895 as a year of enquiry it ultimately challenges the current orthodoxy that modernity in Taiwan was simply a by-product of the Japanese colonial period. As a social and transnational history of the events that took place in Taiwan during 1895 this book will be useful for students of East Asian Studies Modern Chinese Studies and Asian History. . Language: English