The
Farmland Reform Policy is considered to be one of the most important
reasons of Taiwan’s post war social change. The scholars who oppose
Farmland Reform policy believe that it did not loosen the boundaries of
social classes between the tenant and the landlord. In order to test this
argument, this study targets part of the existing heirs of " The
37.5% Arable Land Rent Reduction " policy in order to investigate:
(1)the relationship between tenants and landlords before the Farmland
Reform policy; (2) the social mobility of landlords and tenants after
" The 37.5% Arable Land Rent Reduction "; (3) the situation
about lease administration between tenants and landlords since "The
37.5% Arable Land Rent Reduction". The study shows that for larger
landlords, the trauma was mainly psychological; for the tenants, land
reform did bring some relieve on their economic hardship but no immediate
improvement; while the small land owners suffered both psychological and
economic losses. Our analysis also show that it is not until the third
generation that the social distance between landlord and tenant was getting
narrower, but there are still major differences on how to settle the land
lease issue.