Although it is not particularly noticeable nowadays, considerable and keen German interest in the island of Taiwan has existed for a long time. This is reflected by the large body of, albeit relatively unknown, German works covering the island. The major part of these works was produced in the second half of the nineteenth century, but some sources date as far back as the seventeenth century. These include missionary reports, scientific articles about regional ethnology, geology, zoology and botany, as well as individual travel journals and diaries, which paint authentic pictures of Taiwan at the time. These descriptions reveal information about their authors as well, and they illustrate how scientific disciplines participate in the exchange of knowledge and commodities but also in the creation of personal and collective norms of cross-cultural encounters.

In the summer of 1880, Wilhelm Joest, a German ethnologist born in Cologne, landed on Taiwan with the goal of getting to know the inhabitants of the north of the island, and he explored the surroundings of Taipei as well. What had been planned as a side trip to the then capital city of Taiwanfu (today's Tainan 臺南) in the south of the island turned into a three-week stay as poor weather conditions prevented him from leaving. Altogether, his stay lasted more than a month. He documented his research findings, experiences and impressions in three works: a scientific article, an extensive travel report in the style of a novel and an as yet unpublished diary. By bartering and trading with the local people, he acquired numerous commodities and historical photographs, which he donated to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin during his lifetime. These artefacts allow an in-depth analysis of his stay on the island, at the time known as Formosa.

In this essay, I will first of all provide the historical context of Joest's journey to Taiwan, which took place at a time when ethnographic and anthropological research in Europe was interested in ideas of cultural evolutionism and classifications of societies. After a short biographical introduction of the author, I will then focus on several events mentioned in his travel report that at first glance seem to be realistic in order to inspect their authenticity, where authenticity is to be understood in relation to the intertextual nature of the accounts.