Sun, May 06, 2001 page2

• Tracing Taiwanese bloodlines

  Taiwanese have long faced a crisis of identity. The people who call this island-nation their home have been ruled by a wide range of foreign governments. Trying to shed light on this complex issue, a blood geneticist at Mackay Memorial Hospital recently released a report on the origins of the Taiwanese people which shows that Taiwanese and Hakka bloodlines can be traced back to the Yueh ethnic group, and not northern China as has long been assumed. `Taipei Times' reporter Tsai Ting-I spoke with Dr Lin Ma-li yesterday about the implications of her research

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  Taipei Times: How did you get involved in your current research.

  Lin Ma-li (林媽利): I originally spent 10 years studying the origins of native Taiwanese [ie, Aboriginals], but I discovered that Taiwanese were not very interested in this type of research, despite the attention international research institutes have paid to the genetic purity of Taiwan's Aboriginals.

  After publishing my research on the Aboriginals I received many e-mails from Taiwanese who were interested in learning more about their origins, but refused to consider themselves Han (an ethnic group from northern China).

  

  Dr Lin Ma-li, a blood geneticist, has conducted research into the origins of the Taiwanese people. Her research has drawn attention in political circles in light of the debate over unification with China.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  Since I had already studied native Taiwanese I decided to switch my research focus to the origins of Minnan and Hakka people [descendants of early settlers from the southeast coast of China].

  I didn't expect that the release of the research would attract so much attention, because very few people in Taiwan paid attention to my native Taiwanese study when it was published.

  TT: Isn't the attention your research has received due in part to the fact that it challenges Han centralism and gets caught up in the political debate over unification with China?

  Lin: Yes. I did think about the controversy my findings could cause a long time ago. But two prominent anthropological ethnologists had already pointed to the conclusions that my genetic research has proven, even before the issue of unification and independence existed. Lin Hui-Shiang's (林惠祥) The Ethnology of China published in 1937, and W Meacham's Origins and development of the Yueh coastal Neolithic: A microcosm of cultural change on the mainland of East Asia, released in 1981, both point to similar conclusions.

  A paragraph in Lin's book reads: "If the Fujianese insist that they are pure-bred Hans, then they will be deceiving themselves and showing their foolishness."

  The book was published in 1937. At that time there was no controversy over unification or independence.

  TT: How would you like Taiwanese to interpret your research?

  Lin: Taiwanese should look at themselves as native Min-Yueh (閔越), rather than Han from the northern part of China. I don't know to what extent the blood of Min-Yueh and Han people have become mixed, but, according to historical explanations published in China, Han from the north relocated to the south during the Chin Dynasty (晉朝), but later moved back north. I believe in history, but I can't shed any light on the question of mixed blood from my material.

  What I can say is that the genes of Taiwanese are different from those of the northern Han.

  TT: Many are already looking at your research from a political standpoint. Do you think your research is political in nature?

  Lin: I think that everyone should understand their origins. I don't think it's right not to know one's origins. I am just trying to trace the origin of native Taiwanese.

  I don't understand why African-Americans can go to Africa to trace their origins, but Taiwanese can't say, "We are ancient Yueh."

  The study is simply about understanding origins. I don't know anything about politics. I don't belong to any political party.

  I just try to do what I should to help people learn where they are from.

  It's not my business if anyone puts a political spin on my research.

  I am looking for a way to discuss the search for one's origins.

  I don't want anybody who has a political agenda to destroy the research. That's why I insist on leaving politics to politicians.
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