The class will examine Taiwan’s economic development from about 1860 to 1985. This is the first time this class has been taught in English (and taught on the main campus). The way the class is taught and graded will depend on how many students take the course. The above schedule is thus tentative. During the first class, I will offer an overview of Taiwan’s economic growth since the late-19th century. The course will then be organized topically. We will start by examining Taiwan’s important crops (sugar, rice and tea) and how these affected Taiwan’s economic development from roughly 1860-1960. Then we will look at the development of Taiwan’s natural resources, primarily camphor and gold. Finally we will consider Taiwan’s rise as a manufacturing power. We will start with a look at Taiwan’s first labor-intensive manufactured export, woven hats, which were produced and exported in the pre-war era, but mainly focus on Taiwan’s post-war export boom and its early electronics industry. I expect I will be lecturing about half the time and student presentations (group or individual) and discussion will take up the rest of the time. Grades will probably be based on class participation (maybe 10%), presentations (60%?) and a final essay test (possibly 30%) but this is open to negotiation and depends on class size. There will be no text, but you should expect to read research papers and chapters from English-language books in order to do your presentations.