Good points!
Was one of those provinces Shandong? That place was historically full of banditry and violence, and the region has birthed many effective fighting styles - such as Mantis Boxing. The current day combat-effectiveness of many of those practitioners is debatable, but that's due to many factors and an entirely different discussion. But your point is pretty intriguing. Do you have an ISBN or a specific vendor you know that I can get the book from? If not I'll search.
Taiwan was definitely a pretty violent "frontier" for centuries... I know that many Taiwanese were better-armed compared to counterparts in more "peaceful" (relatively) parts of China... but that was probably more out of necessity than cultural preference. Weapons over agricultural improvements, eh? No doubt you need to to survive before you can thrive.
