Rural land reform has been a significant economic and political event in Taiwan’s postwar economic development. For this reason, it has attracted academic research exploring the influence of rural land reform on the development of Taiwanese society. Past academic research is divided between the positive and negative: one view is supportive of land reform, the other is not. The purpose of this study is to clarify the positive and negative arguments and attempt, through the use of evidence and data, to understand the land allotment situation in Taiwan before rural land reform, and explore the effects the reform has had on society.

First, from records and official statistics collected for this research, we discovered that before Taiwan’s land reform, much of the total land was owned by many small landlords. According to data in the Land Inventory of the Township of Xihu in Changhua County, each landowner possessed an average of around 1.0775 jia* of land. All other statistical data shows that in Taiwan, the average land possessed by each landlord did not exceed 2 jia. However, a large proportion of tenant farmers owned land that was for residential purposes and not farmed. In short, the data shows that in Taiwanese society before the land reform, the majority of tenant farmers were not actually destitute peasants, and the majority of landowners were not exorbitantly wealthy.

Second, this study explores the social mobility of the families of landlords and tenant farmers who have been affected by the land reform in accordance with field data (relevant historical documents) collected in Xihu. The statistical data shows that if the families of landlords in the past needed to rely on rent as their principal source of income, they would need at least 6 jia of land. However, most landowning families did not own more than that, which shows that the majority did not rely on rent as their main source of income. However, we also discovered from the field data that in the generation after the land reform, the majority of landowning families still had economic and social superiority over the families of tenant farmers: the education level of members of landlord families was higher than that of the tenant farmers, and most descendants of the tenant farmers still worked in agriculture.

Finally, in light of field interviews conducted for this research, we show the shared impressions the families of landlords and tenant farmers have of the land reform, patterns in their way of thinking, and the misperceptions and misunderstandings landlords and tenant farmers have of each other. These misunderstandings and impressions can potentially have negative effects on the utilization of land in Taiwan’s townships, and also increase costs. In sum, this study does not support the presumption of past papers which posit that “land reform has spurred landlords to commercial growth”, nor does it support the theory that the “land reform has resulted in worse living conditions for landlords than for tenant farmers”. Although there are more small and medium landlords in total and landlords do not hold much land per capita, differences lie in the social mobility opportunities for the families of landlords and tenant farmers. However, there have not been major changes as a result of the land reform.

*One jia is equivalent to 0.9699 hectare (=9700 square meters).