Of the nation's 440,000 Aborigines, only 23 have managed to obtain doctorates since 1945, according to a book released yesterday.
The Story of their Lives: the Academic Path of Taiwan's Aboriginal Doctorate Holders tells the stories of 21 Aboriginal people who succeeded in obtaining the tertiary degree.
Prominent interviewees include ambassador-at-large Tung Tsun-fa (童春發), presidential advisor Antonio Hong (鴻義章), legislator Tsai Chung-han (蔡中涵) and Taipei City Indigenous Peoples Commission director Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉).
"The hard work of Aboriginal doctorate holders and the obstacles they faced were much more onerous than the public imagines. How they transformed these obstacles into assets and how they faced issues of ethnic identification form the the book's essence," said Kung, whose organization published the volume.
"We hope this book can encourage more young Aboriginal people to realize their dreams and change the stereotyped impressions Han [Chinese] have about Aborigines," he said.
Assistant professor Ubark (Kao Te-i,
Ubark received his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University and his master's degree and doctorate from National Chengchi University's Department of Political Science.
Although Ubark is a fine scholar with an impressive academic record, his life has not exactly been smooth, the book shows.
He encountered serious discrimination as a young Aboriginal man. The most hurtful instance of this occurred when a Taiwanese girlfriend of seven years was forbidden to marry Ubark because he was Aboriginal. After they broke up, she quickly married another man.
The incident led Ubark to attempt suicide by taking sleeping pills, but fortunately he survived.
"In some courses I took for my master's degree, the tutors said that in the future, the different ethnic groups would merge and integrate, but I could not disagree more," the book quoted him as saying.
"So I concentrated on policies relating to Taiwan's Aborigines in my master's thesis, and then for my doctorate I worked on ethnic relations in Taiwan and China," the book said.
After he received his doctorate, Ubark took the national examination for the diplomatic service. He passed the examination and became the nation's first Aboriginal diplomat.
"We underwent some training after we entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I had the best record among all the new diplomats. But an official was skeptical about me because he thought I looked like an Aborigine," he said.
Later he tried his hand at assorted jobs, including legislative assistant.
In 1997 he was invited by National Donghwa University to help set up the College of Indigenous Studies, and he has worked there since.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
RSS