If you wish to understand Taiwan's identity, one defining moment in history was the February 28, 1947 Massacre. A reminder of that event happened in 1980 after the Kaohsiung Incident. On February 28, 1980, the family of Lin I-hsiung was assassinated in their home in broad daylight. As the home was under 24-hour secret police surveillance, there is no doubt that the murders of Lin I-Hsiung's family were ordered by the KMT Chinese Nationalist Party dictatorship under Chiang Ching-kuo. Several other prominent assassinations of those critical of the regime happened in following years: in 1982, the murder of a professor on the grounds of National Taiwan University (claimed a suicide by the government) and in 1984, the assassination of a Taiwanese professor in California after he wrote a biography critical of the KMT dictator at the time, Chiang Ching-kuo.
For the events leading up to February 28, 1947 Massacre, you can read an online book,
Formosa Calling by a New Zealander Alan Shackleton who wrote an eyewitness account of the events. Also you can read
Formosa Betrayed by George Kerr, an America defense attaché who was stationed in Taiwan at the time, was fluent in Hoklo Taiwanese and observed and reported events as they happened.
