After becoming the first female president of Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is tomorrow expected to become the first president to apologize to the nation’s Aborigines. Let us hope that it is not just an apology, but the beginning of a series of actions to make up for the wrongs that all of the governments that have ruled over Taiwan have committed.
As the date for the apology approaches, the nation’s Aboriginal communities have expressed mixed reactions, with some looking forward to it, while others are skeptical about whether the apology would actually bring about change, or be merely an empty political gesture. Some pan-green camp supporters might criticize them for their skepticism, or say that it is unsurprising, as most Aborigines are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters. Those who know the history of Taiwan’s Aborigines over the past few centuries would understand why.
The Aborigines have suffered ever since the first foreign regime set foot on Taiwan.
When the Dutch came, they called for allegiance from the Aborigines, and those who refused were conquered by the Dutch military. Although the Aborigines are the first inhabitants of Taiwan, their tribal leaders had to receive certification from the Dutch to become leaders.
Then came Koxinga (鄭成功) and his troops from China. After driving away the Dutch, Koxinga’s regime seized hundreds of hectares of arable land from the Aborigines so that his tens of thousands of soldiers could sustain their lives on the island.
Some of the tribes rose against Koxinga’s regime, but they were violently suppressed, with some villages being completely erased and almost all of the villagers massacred.
During the rule of the Qing Empire, more Chinese settlers arrived and more Aboriginal land was taken.
Although the Qing government once set official boundaries between Aborigines and Han Chinese settlers, as Chinese settlers often crossed over the borders, the government kept on pushing back the boundaries into Aboriginal land.
Aborigines living in Han Chinese settlement areas — commonly known as Pingpu Aborigines — were gradually given Chinese names and many were slowly forced to give up their languages and cultures. Moreover, when armed conflict broke out between Han settlers and Aborigines, the Pingpu would be called upon to stay in the buffer zone between the Han settlers and other Aborigines to help defend the Han settlers’ land — which originally belonged to the Pingpu.
During the Japanese colonial period, the government explored deeper into Aboriginal domains and eventually controlled the entire island — as well as Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼). To the economic benefit of the Japanese Empire and capitalists, large areas of Aboriginal land were seized by the government and harvested for timber or turned into sugarcane farms, while the people were forced to give up their “uncivilized” habits and cultures.
Then came the KMT regime, which saw Aboriginal land in the mountains continuing to be harvested for timber or turned into national parks where all development is prohibited. Aboriginal land in the plains was transferred to Taiwan Sugar Co, which continued to plant sugarcane, and some became government properties or party assets.
In addition to the “tangible harm” in the decades after the KMT arrived, the Aborigines also suffered from “intangible harm” and became victims of different forms of discrimination.
If ethnic groups have suffered so much, largely due to government actions in the past centuries, why would they easily believe in yet another government?
If Tsai and her government truly mean what they promise, they should come up with concrete and sincere actions following the apology to gain the trust of the nation’s Aborigines.
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had
RSS