Reddit reviews The First Chinese Democracy: Political Life in the Republic of China on Taiwan

If you're truly interested in learning about Taiwanese history, here's some good resources.

• History of Taiwan - Wikipedia: High level overview from prehistory to modern times
  
• Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule: Focusing on the 50 years of Japanese rule
  
• Formosa Betrayed: Focusing on the 1940s transition from Japanese to KMT rule
  
• The First Chinese Democracy: Transition period from KMT autocratic rule to today's multiparty system.
  
  I'm not saying Japan had much more impact on today's Taiwan than the retreating KMT army, but merely pointing out that Taiwan has a rich multicultural history. Some of us have grandparents that only speak Japanese and Taiwanese, others have grandparents that see the Japanese as their sworn mortal enemy. In the past these two facets caused a giant chasm in our society, leading to mutual distrust and brutal oppression from KMT. This is the party that in its autocratic days killed tens of thousands of Taiwanese and sent an assassination crew to assassinate a Taiwanese American living in California for writing an unauthorized biography of then president Chiang Jing-kuo.
  
  I note that you mentioned your parents immigrated from Taiwan, my assumption then is that you did not grow up in Taiwan. I think if you did you'd be able to better understand why many of us see ourselves today as Taiwanese first, Chinese second. For better or wose, when people immigrate they tend to carry with them a snapshot of the society as it was when they left.