The early history of Taiwan is fascinating. The establishment of the Dutch colony; early struggles between the Dutch East India Company and Chinese pirates; the company's attempts to rule over the island's indigenous head-hunters; the eventual establishment of a flourishing colony and its day-to-day functioning (it was a Chinese colony under Dutch rule); and, finally the dramatic war in which the Chinese warlord Koxinga defeated the Dutch and took Taiwan for his Ming loyalist regime – all these topics open windows not just on China's rich history, but also on global history and the intercultural interactions that took place in the early phases of globalization.

Yet, teaching Taiwan's Dutch period has been difficult. It is a history of cross-cultural interaction, and the sources that discuss those interactions are often available only in their original languages. Recent publications have opened up some of these sources, but most remain out of reach. For example, the famous 18th-century Dutch play Anthonius Hambroek, or The Siege of Formosa, which focused on the war between the Dutch East India Company and the Chinese warlord Koxinga in 1661–62, has only been accessible to people who could read Dutch. The same was true of most of the 17th-century Dutch pamphlets and broadsheets that reflected on Dutch colonial practices. Chinese sources have likewise remained untranslated.

In this volume, however, editor Llyn Scott has compiled a collection of translations, bringing the rich history of early Taiwan to life and allowing cross-cultural comparisons that can lead to deep insights. For example, one can read Antonius Hambroek (1775) in conjunction with the Japanese play The Battles of Koxinga (1715), an excerpt of which is also in this volume (the entirety of Battles of Koxinga was translated into English by Donald Keene, and it is his translation that is used here). Both plays were major hits, and both focused on the wars of the warlord Koxinga. Moreover, both touched on the same theme: the conflict between duty to country and duty to family. But of course, each approached the theme in its own way. In the Dutch play, missionary Antonius Hambroek chooses death before dishonour, against the protests of his daughter and his friends and is executed by Koxinga while his daughter watches. In the Japanese play, the character Kinshojo chooses to stab herself so that her husband can conclude an alliance with her father and not be said to merely be acting out of family interest. How is the relationship between family and duty treated in the two plays? How is martyrdom conceived?

Making the comparison even more intriguing is the fact that the main protagonist in the Dutch play explicitly critiques honour suicide. In the scene in question, Hambroek is urged by a Chinese emissary to kill himself rather than allow his daughter to see him executed, and Hambroek replies that “It would be a greater sorrow to my family if it ever saw me soil my honor by suicide” (p. 38). Hambroek then says, “Your system not only contradicts the light of reason and brings you disgrace, but it is also contrary to your duty: because if you received your life from Heaven's hand, you cannot possibly allow it to depend on your own hand; or you, whatever illusion, whatever sham honor seduces you, will audaciously interfere with Heaven's prerogative; an act full of horror!” (p. 39). The passage raises questions about cross-cultural comparison, about Orientalism, about religion and about honour, and the Japanese play provides a dramatic counterpoint. There are so many pedagogical possibilities in the pairing of these two plays, and I have long wanted to assign them to students and wished for an English translation of the Dutch play. Now not only does that translation exist, but it is contained in the same reasonably priced volume as the Japanese play.

There is so much in this volume. Among the most intriguing pieces is the “East India chat” between two former school teachers of Dutch Taiwan, who criticize colonial rule and the avaricious exploitation by Dutch missionaries of the native Taiwanese. The teachers complain that the Dutch are no better than the tyrannous Spanish, who were, of course, demonized in Dutch propaganda to justify Dutch depredations against Spanish colonial holdings. Another piece focuses on Dutch doggerel and sea shanties, discussing how they portray China and the Chinese. A unit on the 2000 film The Sino-Dutch War: 1661 (Yingxiong Zheng Chenggong), by Fifth-Generation director Wu Ziniu, pairs an essay about the film with a translation and transcription of some scenes. One could have students watch part of the movie (available in English-subtitled version) and read the article and transcription and then compare the film's portrayal of the Sino-Dutch war with that of the Dutch play and that of the Japanese play. There is also a discussion of a Taiwanese video game, a translation of an Italian play about Formosa, and a discussion of the famous 18th-century Formosan imposter George Psalmanazar. It makes for a compelling and useful volume overall.

There are some problems. One is a question of register. Undergraduates may find themselves challenged by some of the content, such as the first substantive chapter, an erudite article by A.J.E. Harmsen on images of China and Taiwan in Dutch literature, which assumes at least a basic acquaintance with the work of Voltaire, Spinoza and Descartes. Instructors should be prepared to provide explanation and perhaps supplementary materials.

Second, some of the pieces are not contextualized well enough. For example, the excerpt Antonius Hambroek begins abruptly in Act IV, the most famous and juicy act. I have read the play in the original Dutch and written a book about the history of Koxinga's conquest, yet I still felt disoriented. The editors could have done a better job setting up the act and providing background information. Still, the translation is so good – and the play itself so engaging – that it is worth persevering. An instructor should simply be aware and provide plenty of context, perhaps by first assigning two other articles: “An epilogue: the loss of Dutch Formosa to the Chinese” and Llyn Scott's article “Staging eighteenth-century Dutch Imperialism” (in the volume, these two chapters appear after Antonius Hambroek).

Finally, a bit more proofreading would have been advisable – there are a few errors of dates, such as in the Introduction, which states that the Sino-Dutch War occurred between 1662 and 1663, when in fact it occurred between 1661 and 1662. Other dating mistakes are in the originals of the translated sources, as in “The Loss of Dutch Formosa to the Chinese,” and these of course couldn't have been changed, but the editors should have put in footnotes to alert readers.

But overall this is an excellent and welcome volume, one I plan to assign to my own students. Now if only someone would translate some of the main Chinese texts about this period, such as the Taiwan wai ji (Unofficial Records of Taiwan), a delightful mix of legend and history about Taiwan's early history and the Zheng family.