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What is it that makes someone indigenous?

The Taiwan Public TV documentary Exotic Exoticism (草木戰役) that challenges traditional concepts of indigenous and foreign plant life aired last Friday and Saturday. The subject has an obvious symbolism, thinking of the foreign vegetation that has invaded Taiwan throughout history and the fierce battles that ensued as some species drove back indigenous vegetation.

But after seeing the premiere of the documentary at Eslite Books, I felt that the relationships between different plant "ethnicities" narrated throughout the film, as well as the relationship between plants and human populations, was quite complicated and not a simple matter of a life and death battle.

An intuitive reaction might be to think that there is a problem with foreign species because they threaten the survival space of the native species. Given the current state of Taiwanese politics and society, the connotations associated with references to divisions and relations between indigenous and foreign interests can easily produce an emotional reaction.

When it comes to planting trees and vegetation, many people emphasize planting indigenous species rather than foreign ones. But if one really thinks about it carefully, what is a foreign species? Is it by definition a bad thing?

This film, as well as biology experts, emphasizes that the situation isn't so clear cut.

Pan Fuh-jiunn (潘富俊), chairman of the Division of Forest Biology at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and adviser to the film, gave a talk after the preliminary screening.

He defined foreign species as those that have been introduced into a new ecosystem, usually for cultivation. Many brought benefit to the population, such as rice and potatoes.

The problem is that some of the stronger species propagate too quickly, attacking and even destroying indigenous species. The potatoes, royal palm, hairy beggarticks and white popinac discussed in the film are all foreign species, but some are good and some bad for their new environment.

The film also offered some thought-provoking questions on how to define an "indigenous" species. It's unimportant how long a certain type of vegetation has grown in Taiwan; some foreign species arrived here ages and ages ago. The majority of people don't actually know whether a great number of species are foreign or not.

At the screening there was one person who had lived abroad for 40 years who suggested that each county and city should select an indigenous plant to be its official flower. Besau Iming, the film's chief planner, replied that Taitung County's official flower, the dendrobium orchid, was a foreign species.

The film's perspective on indigenous and foreign groups and the relationship between plants and humans offers some enlightening revelations on how we think about Taiwan's ethnic relations. Before one goes off debating whether being foreign or indigenous is good or bad, we should acknowledge that nobody can really say who or what is foreign or indigenous.

Looking at this from the perspective of the evolution and migration of human beings, Taiwan has no indigenous people. Similarly, there is some doubt whether the word "local" makes any significant distinction.

Everyone has grown accustomed to distinguishing ethnic groups according to those that eat yams (Taiwanese) versus potatoes (Mainlanders). The potatoes are certainly a foreign species, while yams are a staple food for many Aboriginal tribes. And perhaps the yam came earlier, but we still can't say if it's indigenous.

Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica.

Translated by Marc Langer
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