Dynamic in Taiwan's Postwar Development : The Religious and Historical Roots of Entrepreneurship,
Book by Ian A. Skoggard; M. E. Sharpe, 1996

Introduction:Introduction

In the last forty years, Taiwan has undergone a remarkable transformation, metamorphosing from an apparently poor agrarian society into an affluent industrial nation. The speed of this transformation has exceeded that of developed countries during their period of early industrialization: twice the rate of growth of the United States and Japan, and three times that of England. While it is recognized that the state, foreign capital, and the restructuring of the world economy had much to do with Taiwan's growth, the Taiwanese people were also a proactive force in their country's transformation. Although the roles of families and entrepreneurs are acknowledged, the local history and culture in which families and entrepreneurs were embedded has not been fully explicated, and thus the impression has been that these local agents were "hollow men" merely reacting to exogenous forces or behaving according to a narrow familial ethic, or that their motives and behavior can be assumed to be no different than their Western counterparts'. This study attempts to correct this bias by regarding local culture and society as a unique realm of power, and a force in Taiwan's postwar development.