Koxinga: A hero's legacy

Key information

Date
Time
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Venue
Main Building, SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG
Room
KLT
Event type
Lecture

About this event

Join Jonathan Clements for a talk on the Zheng Cheng-gong (1624-62), as part of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Seminar Series.

Author and TV presenter Jonathan Clements talks through the strange afterlife of Zheng Cheng-gong (1624-62), the Ming loyalist and conqueror of Taiwan, variously derided as a pirate and a rebel; lauded as a resistance leader and prince, twice deified, spuriously reclaimed as both a Japanese patriot and a Chinese "People's Hero". 

Along the way, there are some unlikely legends, some suspicious shenanigans, and his co-option into a 2010 mayoral campaign that threatened to turn into a fistfight among historians.

*All SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies events are open to all and not needing to register.

Meet the speaker

Jonathan Clements

Jonathan Clements is the author of Rebel Island: The Incredible History of Taiwan (Scribe, 2024). He has presented three seasons of Route Awakening (National Geographic), an award-winning TV series about Chinese historical and cultural icons, and also appeared in Koxinga: A Hero's Legacy, a documentary about the reconstruction of one of Koxinga's trading vessels.

Image credit: Jacques Beaulieu via Flickr.