This Official Postcrossing card came to me from Taiwan! I’m not sure if “Love Taiwan” is part of a postcard series, but what you can see here is a holographic profile of the country as well as the name “Formosa” under it. The name Formosa originated from when Portuguese sailors were sailing by and took note of its beauty. They deemed it “Ilha Formosa”, which translates to “Beautiful Island”. This term is still used by some to delineate present-day Taiwan. Did you know, however, that Taiwan was once also known as the Republic of Formosa? In 1895, after warring between China and Japan, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed between the two countries, which shifted control of Taiwan from China to Japan. The people of Taiwan retaliated by declaring independence and forming the first independent Asian republic – the Republic of Formosa. The republic got as far as electing its own officials, creating its own flag (which has a pretty rad tiger on it), and even issuing its own money and postage stamps. If you philatelists come across Formosan stamps… keep those sons of guns! They’re valuable and rare! Unfortunately for the people, the republic did not last long as Japanese forces came in to assert control, and Formosa’s militia was not developed well enough to steadfastly fight back. For that reason, the Republic of Formosa existed for only five months! Now you see why Formosan commodities are so rare – oh what I would do for a postcard cancelled by the Formosan post office! I would even trade a card postmarked out of the US Minor Outlying Islands for it! (And THAT’S saying something – to this day I don’t know anyone with a postmark from there.) Thank you so much for this cool postcard!
