Taipei Times: How did you get involved in your current research.
Lin Ma-li (
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).
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 (
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 (
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.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of