Taiwanese should be considered ethnically distinct from Han Chinese, as a majority are more closely related to Aboriginal Austronesians and Pacific islanders, Taiwan’s leading hematologist and medical anthropology researcher said on Saturday.
Marie Lin (林媽利) made the comment at a book launch party for her biography, where colleagues and friends presented her with bouquets and a birthday cake to mark her turning 80 this year.
Decades of research using molecular technology to analyze human DNA and genetic markers had convinced her that most Taiwanese, as descendants of lowland Pingpu Aborigines (平埔族群) and highland Aborigines have mixed blood types, and are quite distinct from the genetic characteristics of the two main ethnic groups in China, the northern and southern Han Chinese.
Photo: CNA
Lin is internationally renowned for her pioneering genetic mapping and ethno-demographic studies of Taiwan’s population, with more than 150 papers to her credit.
“The main Hoklo Taiwanese and Hakka population in this nation have Pingpu and Aboriginal bloodlines in their ancestry from centuries of intermarriage, and the analysis of DNA and genetic markers reflects this new understanding of the close relationship between Taiwanese and Austronesians and Pacific islanders,” she said.
“Through the long history of ethno-cultural evolution on Taiwan, which was isolated from other main population centers, we can consider the result as forming a ‘Taiwanese people group,’ which is distinct from the Han Chinese people,” she said.
Genetic contributions from the Pingpu and Aboriginal bloodlines gave Taiwanese the traits of adventurous ambition, open hospitality to outsiders and a positive, sunny disposition in general, she said.
Lin has served as director of transfusion medicine and molecular anthropology at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei — where she set up the nation’s first blood bank — since 2000, and been a professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Forensic Medicine since 2004.
A video allegedly featuring retired general Kao An-kuo (高安國) calling on Taiwanese military officers to surrender to China and overthrow the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has sparked outrage and calls for him to be charged with treason. The video, titled “A message to Taiwanese military officers,” allegedly shows Kao saying: “I call on commanding officers of our military troops to stand up for Chinese nationalism, to take up this duty under heaven’s mandate to save Taiwanese from oppression and terrible suffering.” Dressed in military fatigues and a beret, the lieutenant general called on officers to overthrow the “fraudulent DPP regime,”
HASTY REVIEW CLAIMS: Medigen’s vaccine, which is to start phase 3 clinical trials later this year, should not have received emergency use authorization, Hau said Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) is to appeal the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of Medigen Vaccine Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine, he said yesterday. The administration on July 19 granted Medigen emergency use authorization, even though the drugmaker had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials. The government should not authorize the use of a vaccine that has not completed phase 3 trials, Hau said in Taipei on the sidelines of an event to distribute boxed meals with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康). Hau said the government had politicized
WORTH SOLVING: As 70% of water for public use comes from reservoirs, eutrophication is increasingly placing a strain on water filtration systems, an NTU professor said Most of the 26 reservoirs on Taiwan’s outlying islands are affected by eutrophication, while five out of the 20 category-one reservoirs on Taiwan proper are also affected by eutrophication, an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) report showed. Eutrophication is caused by an excess of nutrients, which results in a buildup of plant life that prevents light and oxygen from entering the water. In April, the Mingde (明德), Baihe (白河), Jingmian (鏡面), Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) and Fengshan (鳳山) reservoirs were the five category-one reservoirs with the most eutrophication, the report said. The Fengshan reservoir scored 70 on Carlson’s trophic state index, the highest out of
NEW NUMBERS: No deaths were reported yesterday, but there were 12 local cases and two imported cases — people who had returned from Thailand and the US The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that COVID-19 restrictions are expected to remain in place after Monday next week, as it reported 12 local infections and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the 12 local cases are 10 men and two women aged 10 to 80 who began experiencing symptoms between Thursday and Saturday. Six tested positive during isolation or upon ending it, he said, adding that the sources of infection have been identified in nine cases, while three remain unclear and would be investigated. Taoyuan reported five cases, all family
RSS