Taiwanese Australians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taiwanese Australians are Australian citizens or permanent residents who carry full or partial ancestry from the East Asian island country of Taiwan or from preceding Taiwanese regimes.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2017) |
Total population | |
---|---|
46,822 (Taiwanese-born at 2016 census)[1] 55,960 (according to Taiwan govt. data)[2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide | |
Languages | |
Australian English · Taiwanese Mandarin · Taiwanese Hokkien · Taiwanese Hakka · Varieties of Chinese · Formosan languages | |
Religion | |
Buddhism · Christianity · Chinese folk religion · Irreligion · Taoism · Other | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Chinese Australians, Hong Kong Australians, Indonesian Australians, Japanese Australians, Taiwanese indigenous peoples |
Taiwanese people can be divided into two main ethnic groups; the Han Taiwanese, who have Han Chinese ancestry and constitute over 95% of the population, and the Taiwanese indigenous peoples, who have Austronesian ancestry and constitute approximately 2% of the population.[3] The Han Taiwanese majority can be loosely subdivided into the Hoklo (70%), Hakka (14%) and "Mainlanders (Waishengren)" (post-1949 Chinese immigrants) (14%).[4] Historically, the first known Taiwanese people in Australia arrived from the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) (historical Indonesia) during World War II (1939–1945), having been brought to the country by the exiled NEI government as civilian internees in 1942;[5] at the time, Taiwan was part of the Empire of Japan and Taiwanese people were considered Japanese. Subsequently, Taiwanese mass immigration to Australia began during the 1970s as a result of the complete dismantlement of the White Australia Policy (1901–1973), which historically prevented Taiwanese people and other non-Europeans from permanently settling in the country.