I’m back at the London School of Oriental and African Studies on 4th November to discuss the Zheng regime on Taiwan, 1661-1683.

Author and TV presenter Jonathan Clements discusses the rise and fall of the so-called “Kingdom of Dongning”, an enclave of Ming loyalists that held out on Taiwan for twenty years after the Manchu conquest of China. Torn between opposing ideologies of resistance and accommodation, Dongning clung to the memory of the Ming dynasty, even as its last pretenders died out and mainland support thinned and faded. 

A mere footnote in most accounts of Asian history, it was nevertheless a pivotal influence on the history of Taiwan. Includes incest, strangling and sword-lions.