{"product_id":"9780231208505-puppet-flower","title":"Puppet Flower","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Novel of 1867 Formosa\u003cbr\u003eYao-Chang Chen’s historical novel \u003ci\u003ePuppet Flower\u003c\/i\u003e retells the story of the 1867 sinking of the American merchant ship the \u003ci\u003eRover\u003c\/i\u003e and its aftermath. He brings to light the pivotal role of this incident in Taiwanese history, merging documented events and literary imagination.\u003cbr\u003eIn 1867, an American merchant ship, the \u003ci\u003eRover\u003c\/i\u003e, sank off the coast of southern Taiwan. Fourteen sailors reached the shore, where almost all were killed by indigenous people. In retaliation, the United States launched two disastrous military operations against local tribes. Eventually, the U.S. consul to Amoy, Charles Le Gendre, negotiated a treaty with Tauketok, the chief of the eighteen tribes of the area, that secured safe passage for shipwrecked sailors.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYao-Chang Chen’s historical novel \u003ci\u003ePuppet Flower\u003c\/i\u003e retells the story of the \u003ci\u003eRover\u003c\/i\u003e incident, bringing to light its pivotal role in Taiwanese history. Merging documented events and literary imagination, the novel vividly depicts Tauketok, Le Gendre, and other historical figures alongside the story of Butterfly, a young woman of mixed ethnic heritage who serves as an interpreter and mediator during the crisis. Chen deftly reconstructs the multiethnic and multilingual society of southern Taiwan in the second half of the nineteenth century from multiple perspectives, portraying local people’s daily struggles for survival and their interactions with Han Chinese settlers, Qing dynasty bureaucrats, and Western officials, tradesmen, and adventurers. The novel explores nineteenth-century Sino-American and Sino-indigenous relations and emphasizes the centrality of Taiwanese indigenous cultures to the island’s history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA gripping work of historical fiction, \u003ci\u003ePuppet Flower\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful revisionist narrative of a formative moment in Taiwan’s past. It was recently adapted into a popular Taiwanese TV miniseries, \u003ci\u003eSeqalu: Formosa 1867\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40810311581793,"sku":"9780231208505","price":85.42,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_28393110.jpg?v=1723658124","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780231208505-puppet-flower","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}