The historic legacy of Taiwan's sugar railways explored in book

A book charting the history of Taiwan’s sugar railways and how they played a crucial role in supporting the country’s economic through the 1990s is the topic of a co-authored book by Professor Dafydd Fell and researcher at the Taiwan Sugar Research Institute, Wang Hsiang.

‘The Twilight Years of Taiwan's Sugar Railways: The World's Most Extraordinary Industrial Railway’ is set against the backdrop of rapid closure to industrial systems at the time. The book provides extensive insight into the realities of the (now retired) sugar railway workers through interviews and previously unpublished photographs.

Professor Fell began capturing the railways in 1994, which have been in operation since 1907 during the Japanese colonial era. They became renowned for the criss-crossed style tracks across southern and central Taiwan, with the track length of 3,000 kilometres exceeded the national railway’s network. With sugar being the country’s largest export at this point in time, the sugar railways played a crucial role in Taiwan’s economic stability.

Speaking on the experience of writing the book Professor Fell said: 

“Writing the book was a very enjoyable experience for me. I was returning to a collection of photographs that I had taken in the mid to late 1990s. Writing about these images brought me back to my five years prior to coming to study at SOAS, the years I got married and became father. 

“The 1990s is also the decade that I covered in my first book Party Politics in Taiwan. In fact, the starting point of the book was a photograph I took as a second-year undergraduate student on my language year abroad back in May 1990. I also loved the experience of co-authoring a book for the first time. My co-author, Wang Hsiang was a MA student who had spent much time photographing remains of old sugar railways and interviewing hundreds of retired railway workers.”

In the lead up to the UK launch, Professor Fell and Hsiang received positive reviews from regional publications, including the likes of the Taipei Times, Taiwan Plus and many others. ‘The Twilight Years of Taiwan's Sugar Railways: The World's Most Extraordinary Industrial Railway’ is now available and was celebrated with a special UK launch this month.