The 10 pingpu (平埔) Aboriginal tribes yesterday launched a signature drive to petition for the establishment of a pingpu Aboriginal tribe committee under the Executive Yuan to preserve their languages and heritage.
"Our ancestors came to this island about 4,000 years ago, about 3,600 to 3,800 years earlier than the Han and Hakka people," said Stephen Pan (
restructuring
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Tsai Huang-liang (
"While the Executive Yuan is trying to streamline itself from the current 36 entities down to 22, I thought it'd be a better idea to establish the committee under the proposed culture and sports ministry instead of as a new commission," he told the Taipei Times.
Chanting "pingpu people are the mother of Taiwanese people" and "we want to live here forever," about 20 pingpu Aborigines gathered in downtown Taipei yesterday afternoon to call on the Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan to support their cause.
The Chinese immigrants used the terms pingpu fan (
Unlike the kaoshan Aborigines, whose livelihood depended on hunting, the pingpu Aborigines are described in historical documents as fishermen, with few agricultural skills.
Over the centuries, the pingpu interbred with Han Chinese and most of their language and customs have been lost.
Like the kaoshan Aborigines' 10 sub-tribes -- all of which have already been recognized as official tribes -- the pingpu people also consist of 10 sub-tribes.
The 10 recognized kaoshan Aboriginal tribes are the Atayal, Saisiyat, Bunun, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Amis, Tao and Thao. The 10 pingpu tribes are the Kavalan, Siraya, Makatao, Hoanya, Babuza, Kakabu, Pazeh, Papora, Ketagalan and Taokas.
recognition
In 2001, the DPP-led government recognized the Thao (
The Truku (太魯閣) people of Hualien County were recognized as the nation's 12th indigenous tribe in January this year following a controversial, decade-long effort by activist Pan Wen-kuei (潘文貴) of the Makatao tribe from Pingtung County. Pan said that if the DPP government really means what it says about "localization," it should make efforts to establish the pingpu Aboriginal tribe committee.
"The government should face the issue fair and square," he said. "I'm afraid if we don't do it now, it'll be too late."
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS