ABSTRACT

Taiwan's society and the culture upon which it is built are basically traditional and Chinese. The mountain Aborigines' social structures were more communal and less settled; the lowlanders' social systems were more sedentary and in some important ways resembled those of Chinese agrarian society. The social hierarchy of the Chinese population of Taiwan was patriarchal and patrilineal. There are four ethnic or subethnic groups populate Taiwan: the Aborigines, Fukien Chinese, Hakka, and Mainland Chinese. The two Taiwanese groups speak their own languages or dialects. Fukien Taiwanese speak Taiwanese, a derivative of the Amoy dialect of Chinese, or Amoy Fukienese, spoken in southern Fukien Province. Rapid economic growth has been a powerful force driving social and cultural change in Taiwan. Education has long played a special societal role in Taiwan. Welfare has an interesting history in Taiwan. Social programs were in evidence on the island when it came under Chinese rule in the seventeenth century.