Lin Wei-yuan
Magnate of the Banqiao Lin Family
Qing Dynasty
1838–1905
Lin Wei-yuan, born in 1838, was the leading figure of the Banqiao Lin family, which by his lifetime had grown into the wealthiest house in all of Taiwan. Built on land reclamation, rice, and above all the trade in tea and camphor, the family's fortune gave it influence to match its riches. Lin cultivated close ties with the Qing state, contributing vast sums to the treasury for coastal defence and disaster relief, and was rewarded with rank and official standing. When Liu Ming-chuan set about modernising Taiwan in the 1880s, he made Lin his partner: as deputy commissioner for land reclamation and pacification, Lin helped finance and organise the opening of the mountains, the reform of the land tax, and new commercial ventures, becoming the indispensable bridge between the reforming governor and Taiwanese wealth. His family's Banqiao garden and mansion stand today as a monument to the height of Qing-era Taiwanese gentry culture. When Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, Lin refused to live under the new rulers and withdrew across the strait to Xiamen, where he died in 1905. He is remembered as the richest man of Qing Taiwan and a patron whose money underwrote the island's first age of modernisation.
Partnered Liu Ming-chuan as deputy reclamation commissioner
Refused Japanese rule and withdrew to Xiamen (1895)
Magnate of the Banqiao Lin Family
Lin Wei-yuan
Era
Qing Dynasty
Lifespan
1838–1905
Lin Wei-yuan, born in 1838, was the leading figure of the Banqiao Lin family, which by his lifetime had grown into the wealthiest house in all of Taiwan. Built on land reclamation, rice, and above all the trade in tea and camphor, the family's fortune gave it influence to match its riches. Lin cultivated close ties with the Qing state, contributing vast sums to the treasury for coastal defence and disaster relief, and was rewarded with rank and official standing. When Liu Ming-chuan set about modernising Taiwan in the 1880s, he made Lin his partner: as deputy commissioner for land reclamation and pacification, Lin helped finance and organise the opening of the mountains, the reform of the land tax, and new commercial ventures, becoming the indispensable bridge between the reforming governor and Taiwanese wealth. His family's Banqiao garden and mansion stand today as a monument to the height of Qing-era Taiwanese gentry culture. When Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, Lin refused to live under the new rulers and withdrew across the strait to Xiamen, where he died in 1905. He is remembered as the richest man of Qing Taiwan and a patron whose money underwrote the island's first age of modernisation.
Partnered Liu Ming-chuan as deputy reclamation commissioner
Refused Japanese rule and withdrew to Xiamen (1895)