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.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS