ABSTRACT
The Dutch Princess of Eight Treasures is a local deity in Pingtung dating from the 1930s. Over time, she has been interpreted in the 1930s as the Red-haired Princess and in the 1960s as the Princess of Eight Treasures. With the Chinese translation and publication of the VOC-archival sources in the twenty-first century, the goddess has received a new elaborate biographical story confirming her Dutch origins. The chapter examines the changes in interpretation from the Japanese colonial period in the 1930s to the regime of Chinese Nationalists in the 1960s, and to the period of democratization following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988. We argue that the changing interpretations reflect Dutchification and Sinicization in diverse historical settings. The local interpretations of the goddess differ from the orthodox state view and provide an excellent example of how contemporary Taiwanese identity grows from an embedded local community.
