Web celebrity “bikini hiker” Gigi Wu (吳季芸) was found dead in January on Nantou County’s Penjushan (盆駒山). As she entered a restricted mountain area without a permit, her death has caused much discussion on restrictions in the climbing world.
After collecting climbers’ opinions, the Cabinet has relaxed its longstanding mountain restrictions and “freed the mountains.” The national park permit system is to be replaced with a notification system from next month.
The restrictions date back to the Qing Dynasty, when Chinese rule went as far as the plains and foothills of Taiwan, but failed to reach into the mountains.
In the mid-18th century, the Chinese built the tuniu boundary (土牛界線, a line formed by oxen ditches) around the mountains, separating the Chinese living on the plains and foothills from the Aborigines in the mountains.
At the beginning of the Japanese occupation, Japan’s power did not reach into the mountains either, and it continued the Chinese segregation by establishing a “frontier guard defense line” to keep the Aborigines in the mountain areas. The Japanese did not claim the mountain areas until the 1920s, when they entered the area to systematically build so-called “garrison roads.”
Military victory emboldened the Japanese to carry out a “collective relocation” of Aborigines from the remote mountains to the foothills or plains, forcing them to leave their homes.
In 1949, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government followed the Japanese policy by establishing restricted areas in the mountains to keep people from entering. It nationalized traditional Aboriginal territory and established national parks in some regions. The laws made it more difficult for Aborigines to get closer to their homelands.
The historical context for these restrictions was the colonial oppression of Aborigines. Now that the Cabinet is about to relax its policy by opening roads into remote mountain areas, it has failed to consider history and consult the Aborigines whose traditional territories fall within these areas.
For example, the section of the Batongguan Historic Trail (八通關) from Dashueiku (大水窟) to Walami Cabin (瓦拉米山屋) has been closed since Typhoon Morakot hit in 2009, and the climbing world has long hoped that the section would be reopened.
Built in 1921, the trail was originally a military road constructed by the Japanese to control the Bunun people, and in the end it pushed the Bunun from their traditional territory. Today, the path crossing through mountain areas with many Bunun historical remains has been transformed into a Yushan National Park hiking trail.
With the relaxation of the policy next month, climbers could freely use the trail. However, the Bunun cannot return to their traditional territories as administrators of their own land.
The true opening of restricted mountain areas needs to take transitional justice into account, and the government should address the issue of traditional Aboriginal territories by discussing it with the people who lived there earlier. Without a historical review, the upcoming relaxation of regulations might simply continue colonialist ideology.
Jeff Cheng is a doctoral candidate at Boston University’s archeology department.
Translated by Eddy Chang
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Liu Shu-pin (劉書彬) asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) a question on Tuesday last week about President William Lai’s (賴清德) decision in March to officially define the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as a foreign hostile force. Liu objected to Lai’s decision on two grounds. First, procedurally, suggesting that Lai did not have the right to unilaterally make that decision, and that Cho should have consulted with the Executive Yuan before he endorsed it. Second, Liu objected over national security concerns, saying that the CCP and Chinese President Xi
RSS