| Summary: | 碩士 === 中興大學 === 歷史學系 === 99 === The thesis aims to explore the development history of a family clan in a small region. Through the research on the clan, the perspective on the regional development in Taiwan will be better understood. In addition, the research is the basic work to compile and accumulate the documents of Taiwanese history.
The thesis explors Chen Li-Fu’s family clan in the Nipozi region, Kungkuan. This thesis focuses on two parts. The first part is about the migration history of the Chen’s family clan, which is presented in Chapter Two and Three. The second part is about the development of the clan after their settlement in Nipozi, which is discussed in Chapter Four and Five.
Nipozi is an alternative name of Ren-An Village in Kungkuan, Miaoli. Near Nipozi, there is a place called “The House of Chen (The Village of Chen),” where most of the residents’ family name is “Chen.” These residents are offspring of Chen Li-Fu’s family in Lufeng, Guangdong. Chen Li-Fu’s family were originally Hakkas in Lufeng, Waichow, who sailed across the Taiwan Strait to search for new living space during the reign of Yongzheng in the Ching dynasty. They landed in the Wuqi harbor and exploited in Shalu at first. But due to the Lin Shuang-Wen events, they later left the Shalu region. After two migrations in Taiwan, they finally came to the Nipozi region and settled down in the following two hundred years or so.
In addition to the description of the exploitation of land, this thesis also investigates how the Chen family clan built their relationships with the locals through the participation in public affairs. The family clan is the most important support for family members to live in society and if the family clan intends to keep developing, all the family members must have the intention to sustain it. To sustain the unity of the clan, the most common way is to revise genealogy books, to build ancestral halls or towers. Most Hakka clans will organize “chang-hui” to bond family members and maintain family relationship. In addition, during the two-hundred-year period after the Chen’s clan’s settlement in Taiwan, they have gone back to recall and remember their ancestors in their home towns’ Ken-Zi-Lou and help rebuild or repair their ancestral halls and tombs there. Having frequent contacts with hometown’s clan is one of the important characteristics of the Chen’s clan, which will be described in detail in this thesis.
In addition to genealogy books and scarce firsthand information, this thesis supplements the lost parts of family history with interview with local elderly persons. The thesis also takes reference to current historical data, such as Dan-xin archives of the Chin Dynasty or paleography books, and “land tax report” complied during the period of Japanese colonization, to prove the authenticity of the family history. It is also expected that the combination of the research on the family history and regional exploitation can enable people’s understanding of Taiwan’s development history.
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