ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction to Taiwan's geography, climate, population, and history for readers unfamiliar with the region. Taiwan's climate is semitropical in the north and tropical in the south. Taiwan has a population of 22.5 million people. The modern-day Taiwanese leather industry was born during the Japanese occupation, as both local Taiwanese and Japanese entrepreneurs invested, often jointly, in new enterprises. Freed from the legal constraints of the Japanese state, which during the war had barred Taiwanese entrepreneurs from entering the industry, local people began establishing new leather tanneries. Economic and political restructuring in the 1980s brought a series of new problems to manufacturers in Taiwan. By the late 1980s, successful export promotion policies had created a massive trade surplus. Under pressure from the United States, the Nationalist state abandoned many of its protectionist policies and shifted to a free market regime. The chapter then demonstrates how historical narratives provide the raw material from which identity is woven.
