The publication of a book tracing the Aboriginal rights movement from the 1980s is a breakthrough, as Aborigines are often overlooked in studies of Taiwanese history, Academia Historica President Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said yesterday.
Chang made the remarks during a press conference in Taipei to launch a two-volume book on Aboriginal history published by the Academia Historica and the Council of Indigenous Peoples.
Entitled A Collection of Historical Documents in Taiwan's Aboriginal Movement (
Through pictures, original manuscripts, newspaper clippings, maps and personal accounts from Aboriginal movement leaders, the book guides readers through major events in the Aboriginal movement from 1983 through 2002, when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) confirmed a "new partnership agreement," paving the way for future Aboriginal autonomy.
"With this book we have challenged the Han-centric view that Taiwanese history is only 400-years old," Chang told the news conference.
"Aborigines lived in Taiwan before the Han people migrated from China; and long before the Aborigines, there were people who lived on this land but left only some traces and remains that we have discovered through archeological findings," he said.
Chang said that the Aboriginal rights movement was often overlooked in the study of political and social movements in the 1980s, adding that "we really need to pay more attention to it."
A member of the audience surnamed Lo (
Lo said he spent 24 years as a political prisoner during five decades of authoritarian rule under Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian rule.
"I had many cellmates who were Aborigines and their stories should have been recorded as well," Lo said.
Chang agreed, but said it would have taken too much time to include everything, but he promised to try and record earlier history in future publications.
Lyiking Yuma, a former activist, urged the public to continue making history.
"This publication is by no means the end of our struggle -- we must continue to write our history," she said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS