Lately I haven’t published much on my website but behind the scenes I’ve been busy on a project: the journals of castle Zeelandia!
This years marks the 400 year anniversary of the Dutch-Taiwan relations as 400 years ago the Dutch first arrived on mainland Formosa on what is now An-ping district in Tainan. From exhibitions to commemorative post stamps and multiple festivals. All of this year, this 400th year anniversary is already celebrated in the oldest city of Taiwan: Tainan.
The story of how the Dutch East India company settled at An-Ping and constructed Fort (or castle) Zeelandia. Their interactions with the local population, their trade with Ming dynasty China and the Japanese. How they struggled with hardships such as typhoons and earthquakes and in the end how they lost the fort and the island of Formosa after a long siege to Koxinga. All is well documented in the daily journals of Castle Zeelandia of which most of have survived and now can be found in the Dutch National archives in The Hague.
My plan is to convert the written stories documented in the journals to video on a new YouTube channel. I’ve never tried to make youtube videos so this will be a whole new challenge and for me too. I’m also not sure how I exactly want to go forward: by telling the stories day-by-day or tell interesting stories from the journals in a non-chronical order. I think I will figure this out on the go.
I’m looking forward to discover the stories hidden in the journals of castle Zeelandia together!
The first video will be published soon.
Subscribe to my youtube channel to get a heads up when the first video goes online!
Thank you.