Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China, hereafter roc) is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the east and is located off the southwest coast of Okinawa, Japan, north of the Philippines. Taiwan has a population of 23.82 million people, with about 84 per cent being Taiwanese, 14 per cent Mainland Chinese, and 2 per cent Taiwanese Aborigines. The capital city of Taipei is widely regarded as the political, economic, and cultural centre of Taiwan, which is renowned for its fascinating blend of traditional and modern cultures. Officially, the most common and largely understood language of Taiwan is Mandarin Chinese. Except for their writing systems, Mandarin Chinese (standard Taiwanese Mandarin, the national language of the roc) is almost identical to the official language of Mainland China, known as standard Chinese (Putonghua). The other two major languages are Hokkien (commonly known as Taiwanese), which is spoken by the Taiwanese Hoklo people who descended from immigrants who came from southern Fujian Province during the Qing Dynasty, and Hakka, a variant of the Chinese language adopted by Hakka people who came to Taiwan from Guangdong Province.

The history of human settlement on the island of Taiwan dates back to the arrival of the Austronesian people (or Austronesian-speaking people), ancestors of many of the tribal people who still live in Taiwan, between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. ‘Austronesian peoples’ is a term that refers to people who live in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the African island of Madagascar and who are speakers of Austronesian languages.