She took manufacturing industry as a representative as it had the largest share in the industrial sector and its structure was closely related to Taiwan's income distribution. According to her, by 1860 the rice and sugar processing industries were two major components of Taiwan's manufacturing industry. This kind of industrial structure only changed slightly up until 1895 when Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result of China's defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War.

     During the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), power machines were gradually introduced into Taiwanese factories. Available statistics showed that the number of these factories increased from 642 in 1915 to 6,150 in 1936, an increase of nearly 10 times. The total horsepower used by these factories increased from 17.078 in 1918 to 234,574 in 1940, an increase of more than 13 times. Industry's production value grew 6.73 percent annually during 1902-1942, although fluctuated quite drastically in short terms by 1924. The production value of the industrial sector in 1939 was 633 million yen, while that of agricultural sector was only 522 million yen. This indicated that the economic structure for the first time changed towards favoring the industrial sector.

     As for the structure of the industrial sector per se, light industry shared 92 percent in 1912 and until 1942 it still counted for 72 percent. Furthermore, among light industries, the share of food and beverages manufacturing was as high as 81 percent until 1942; and sugar manufacturing was the leading one throughout the colonial period (See Figure 3). Due to demand for Taiwanese sugar in Japan, sugar production increased rapidly and enormously. In terms of annual production quantity, it was 50 million catty in 1902-1905 and 830 million catty in 1931-1935; and in 1939 the share of sugar production value still counted for more than 50 percent of Taiwan's total industrial production value.

     In short, during the Japanese colonial period light industry predominated and sugar manufacturing was Taiwan\\'s leading industry. As an island with a subtropical climate, Taiwan had good natural conditions for growing sugar; however, this concentration of industrial development was, no doubt, a result of policies undertaken by the colonial government.