Niki J. P. Alsford is professor of Asia Pacific studies and head of Asia Pacific Institutes at the University of Central Lancashire. He is author of Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan: The Spirit of 1895 and the Cession of Formosa to Japan.

"One of the strengths of this work lies in its narrative strategy. Biography, when used with care, can dismantle myths more efficiently than polemic. . . . The book also succeeds in taking Indigenous voices seriously. Unlike many surveys of Taiwanese history, which grant Aboriginal communities a cameo in the opening act before moving on to Han-centric statecraft, Taiwan Lives reintroduces Indigenous agency throughout. . . . [The book] deserves to be read widely, by students, yes, and by anyone who still believes that nations are made through the quiet accumulation of human decisions, human failings and human endurance. Alsford has given Taiwan something many contested entities still lack: a history told from within."