Indigenous people would soon be allowed to use only their ethnic names in their own language when they sign household registration documents or apply for ID cards or passports after the Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Name Act (姓名條例) in a plenary session.
Minister of the Interior Lin You-chang (林右昌) said in a statement that the passage of the bill carries historic significance.
“It not only shows the advancement of our society, but also the enhancement of our culture,” Lin said. “It facilitates integration and equality among different ethnic groups, and contributes to better understanding of one another.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The amendments offer legal protection for indigenous cultures and customs, in which language plays a crucial part, he said.
“We are encouraging indigenous people to pass on their cultures to the next generation,” Lin said. “We will work with other government agencies to determine if there are other measures that should be changed to honor the cultural rights of indigenous people.”
The current act stipulates that indigenous people and other minority ethnic groups must list their ethnic names along with their names in Chinese when they register their households, or apply for naturalization or passports.
The act allows people to change their name up to three times, but indigenous people who seek to change their name for cultural reasons would not count toward that total, the amendments say.
Those who have their ethnic names on their birth certificate or household registration documents can have it changed to Chinese or they can be switched from Chinese to their ethnic name, but such a change would only be allowed once, the amendments say.
Indigenous people can keep unchanged documents that bear their ethnic and Chinese names on their household registration, national ID cards and passports, and are not bound by Article 1 of the act, which requires people to have a single legal name.
The amendments authorize the Council of Indigenous Peoples to investigate and ascertain names of indigenous groups.
The council and the ministry should jointly compose guidelines that list the meanings of ethnic names, how they should be appropriated and other aspects, the amendments say.
Lawmakers also passed a motion requiring the ministry to submit a report to the legislature in three months on how it plans to update name systems in government agencies following passage of the amendments.
It also asked the council to complete in six months an investigation of indigenous names and stipulate standards to recognize valid ethnic names.
It must provide plans to allow people to change their names free of charge, the motion says.
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