Of the nation's 440,000 Aborigines, only 23 have managed to obtain doctorates since 1945, according to a book released yesterday.
The Story of their Lives: the Academic Path of Taiwan's Aboriginal Doctorate Holders tells the stories of 21 Aboriginal people who succeeded in obtaining the tertiary degree.
Prominent interviewees include ambassador-at-large Tung Tsun-fa (童春發), presidential advisor Antonio Hong (鴻義章), legislator Tsai Chung-han (蔡中涵) and Taipei City Indigenous Peoples Commission director Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉).
"The hard work of Aboriginal doctorate holders and the obstacles they faced were much more onerous than the public imagines. How they transformed these obstacles into assets and how they faced issues of ethnic identification form the the book's essence," said Kung, whose organization published the volume.
"We hope this book can encourage more young Aboriginal people to realize their dreams and change the stereotyped impressions Han [Chinese] have about Aborigines," he said.
Assistant professor Ubark (Kao Te-i,
Ubark received his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University and his master's degree and doctorate from National Chengchi University's Department of Political Science.
Although Ubark is a fine scholar with an impressive academic record, his life has not exactly been smooth, the book shows.
He encountered serious discrimination as a young Aboriginal man. The most hurtful instance of this occurred when a Taiwanese girlfriend of seven years was forbidden to marry Ubark because he was Aboriginal. After they broke up, she quickly married another man.
The incident led Ubark to attempt suicide by taking sleeping pills, but fortunately he survived.
"In some courses I took for my master's degree, the tutors said that in the future, the different ethnic groups would merge and integrate, but I could not disagree more," the book quoted him as saying.
"So I concentrated on policies relating to Taiwan's Aborigines in my master's thesis, and then for my doctorate I worked on ethnic relations in Taiwan and China," the book said.
After he received his doctorate, Ubark took the national examination for the diplomatic service. He passed the examination and became the nation's first Aboriginal diplomat.
"We underwent some training after we entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I had the best record among all the new diplomats. But an official was skeptical about me because he thought I looked like an Aborigine," he said.
Later he tried his hand at assorted jobs, including legislative assistant.
In 1997 he was invited by National Donghwa University to help set up the College of Indigenous Studies, and he has worked there since.
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