By the late seventeenth century, the East India Company has reached a monopolizing hand around half the globe, and left bloody fingerprints wherever it met resistance. Yet in 1661, a force comes south to the paradise island of Formosa (the Dutch name for Taiwan) that faces the Dutch imperialists, and drives them away forever.
Manga artist Li Lung-Chieh recreates the character of Frederick Coyett, last Dutch governor of Taiwan, who attempted to create a multi-ethnic community in Taiwan while maintaining control over the island’s resources, yet would live to watch twenty-five thousand Chinese troops destroy his forces and drive him off the island. Facing Coyett from across battle lines is Koxinga, the young Ming loyalist and son of a pirate who would eventually found his own kingdom on Taiwan.
Tempers rise and blood is spilled as a war for resources deepens into a struggle for self-determination and freedom from oppression. Li Lung-Chieh’s aggressive illustrations create the perfect energy for telling a story so charged with ferocious energy.
