Darwin had developed the concepts of evolution into biological theories. In 1859, as his work On the Origin of Species was published, it immediately triggered heated public debates. Darwin’s ideas had been under a fierce attack, because they were distinctly different from theological views. In spite of arousing arguments, the theory of evolution still stands unshakable, and many people even embrace it as truth. In addition to the realm of natural science, evolutionism has also become popular in social aspects and other fields. The theory of evolution had gradually spread from Europe and America to the world, and the ideas were later introduced to Taiwan through Japanese colonial expansion. At that time, the government and civic organizations enabled citizens to gain access to the theory of evolution via multiple channels. Just like Taiwan Daily News, these channels greatly promoted popularization and dissemination of the theory of evolution, and had a substantial impact on Taiwanese society. Meanwhile, the ideology of evolution got consolidated owing to the theory of evolution. The core concepts of evolution—struggle for survival, the survival of the fittest and natural selection—had also become synonyms for the term "evolution." The term "evolution" was not only integrated into Taiwanese people’s everyday conversations, but also brought up constantly in various
writings. The ideology of evolution plays a crucial role in Europe and America where the theory was born and widely embraced; furthermore, it has a dominant position in two Asian countries: China and Japan. It would be
exaggerating to say that the modernization of China and Japan is proportional to the degree of understanding and integration of the ideology of evolution in society. Taiwan has always been closely related to China and Japan, thus it is difficult to avoid similar situations. There is an adequate reason to speculate that the ideology may affect the way of thinking in Taiwan, and it might also shape Taiwanese people’s value orientations. From this point of view, this study explores the ideology of evolution in Taiwanese society and culture during Japanese Occupation based on Taiwan Daily News, aiming to reveal how Taiwanese people absorb these ideas, and to present the results of localization. Firstly, the article elaborates the main channels of spreading Darwin’s theory of evolution in Taiwan, and analyzes the usage and the changes of meanings of the term “evolution” in Taiwan Daily News. Secondly, it discusses Taiwanese intellectuals’ attitudes in response to evolutionism. Viewing from the perspectives of "civilization" and "society" respectively, it examines how Taiwanese intellectuals absorb and
transform the concepts of evolution, and further observes whether they could connect evolutionism with social practice. At last, this study pries into the ideological tendency of an anti-evolutionist through the case of Chung-Seng Lí.