THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

REPUBLIC OF CHINA

• The Republic of China (traditional Chinese: 中華民國 ; simplified Chinese: 中华民国 ; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó; Wade–Giles: Chung1-hua2 Min2-kuo2) was founded in 1912 and it governed mainland China until 1949, when it lost the mainland during the Chinese Civil War and withdrew to Taiwan.

HISTORY

• The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China as a constitutional republic put an end to over 2,000 years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, (also known as the Manchu Dynasty), ruled from 1644–1912. Since its founding after the Xinhai Revolution, (Chinese Revolution) of 1911, the Republic had experienced many trials and tribulations, being dominated by elements as disparate as warlord generals and foreign powers.

• In 1928, the Republic was nominally unified under the "Kuomintang" (KMT)—Chinese Nationalist Party—after the Northern Expedition, and was in the early stages of industrialization and modernization when it was caught in the conflicts among the Kuomintang government, the Communist Party of China, (founded 1921), which was converted into a nationalist party, local warlords and the Empire of Japan.

Most nation-building efforts were stopped during the full-scale "Second Sino- Japanese War" / "War of Resistance" against Japan from 1937 to 1945, and later the widening gap between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party made a coalition government impossible, causing the resumption of the Chinese Civil War, in 1946, shortly after the Japanese surrender to the Americans and the Western Allies in September 1945.

• A series of political, economic and military missteps led to the Kuomintang's defeat and its retreat to Taiwan (formerly Japanese-held Chinese island of "Formosa") in 1949, where it established an authoritarian one-party state continuing under Generalissimo/President Chiang Kai-shek, that considered itself to be the continuing sole legitimate ruler of all of China, referring to the Communist government or "regime" as illegitimate, a so-called "Peoples' Republic of China" declared in Peking/Beijing by Mao Tse Tung in 1949, as "mainland China", "Communist China, or "Red China".

• Although supported for many years, even decades by many nations especially with the support of the United States who established a 1954 Mutual Defense treaty, as the decades passed, since political liberalization began in the late 1960s, the PRC was able after a constant yearly campaign in the United Nations to finally get approval in 1971, to take the seat for "China" in the General Assembly, and more importantly, be seated as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

• . After recovering from this shock of rejection by the world community, after the liberalization at home in the late 1970s from the Nationalist authoritarian government and following the death of Chiang Kai-shek, the Republic of China has transformed itself into a multiparty, representative democracy on Taiwan and even given more representation to those native Taiwanese, whose ancestors predate the 1949 mainland evacuation.

ARTS• PAINTING• A new generation of Taiwan painters appeared during the

period of Japanese rule (1895-1945) whose subject matter,like that impressionists, entered on daily life or local landscapes. Through their nativist art, characterized by conscious desire to depict image evoking Taiwan's unique identity, these oil painters has an important influence on Taiwan's artistic development.

• SCULPTURE• Before the 1920’s the only form of sculpture flourishing in

taiwan were those used in temple and folk arts.It was not until the 1970’s how ever ,the sculpture was widely accepted as a fine-art genre,becoming a regular feature at galleries and museums in the 1980’s.

• CERAMICS• Their contemporary ceramic art emerged in the late 1940’s

in miaoli city and yingge township in taipei county.in the early 1950,it broke out of ceramic factories into artistic workshops,experimenting with shapes and glaze,while remaining largely within traditional functional frameworks.

• SEAL CARVING• Carving names or inscriptions onto chops was once a

requisite skill for an well-rounded literati along with painting and calligraphy. nowadays,only a small numbers of artist still specialize in the art of engraving name chops by hands.

• Typically made of wood,jade,or soft precious stones,the body of a name chop may be left plain or be sculpted into symbolic images such as lions and dragons. In additonal ti their business transaction,chops are imprinted onto additional paintings and calligraphy to identify the artist and add aesthetic feeling.

By mixing traditional and contemporary, Eastern and Western, local and international, Their visual and performing arts are exploring different approaches and developing their own unique styles. Writes, similarly, are drawing on both global and nativist cultural codes to create new modes of literary expression, and explore issues of national concern.

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