With the icy relationship between Taiwan and mainland China has started to make headlines more frequently, the debate over the possibility of reunification has become increasingly contentious. The issue of reunification has largely been portrayed as a dispute between two Chinese governments that, at least officially, view Taiwan as an inseparable part of China; however, it is often forgotten that the island had a long history of settlement by its indigenous population long before the arrival of Chinese settlers in the 17th century. As the status of Taiwan remains insecure, it is incredibly important to recognize the place and role of Taiwan’s aboriginal population in discussions over the island’s future. Despite this, Taiwan’s aboriginal population has often been sidelined in these discussions, with both their claims to the island and their history as victims of colonial violence being largely ignored. As such, the voices and history of Taiwan’s indigenous population must be recognized in conversations around Taiwan’s future in order to secure the livelihoods of Taiwanese aborigines but also to reaffirm the rights of indigenous people across the planet.
Taiwan’s colonial history is one that needs to be recognized, especially in discussions around the ownership of the island. The island of Taiwan is home to one of the oldest cultures on the planet, with Taiwanese aboriginals having inhabited the island in relative isolation for over 8,000 years before multiple periods of violent colonization violated their claims to the land. Colonization began largely with incursions from the Spanish and Dutch in the early 17th century, but eventually became dominated by Chinese colonists after the island was seized in 1662. During this period, Chinese settlers from Fujian began taking land from Taiwanese aboriginals, slowly relegating them to the mountains of Central and Eastern Taiwan.
The Taiwanese aboriginals experienced another wave of violent colonialism two centuries later when in 1895, the island was occupied by Japan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This new wave of colonialism brought not only Japanese colonists, but also Western colonial ideals, such as Social Darwinism, to the island. The Japanese held that the indigenous Taiwanese were racially inferior, and used this to justify horrific acts of colonial violence such as the Musha Incident, where a raid committed by Taiwanese aborigines was met with a brutal campaign of retaliation that resulted in 600 deaths.
While Japanese colonialism ended in 1945 with the dissolution of the Japanese empire, the colonial violence towards Taiwan’s aboriginal population did not. The reigning Chinese Kuomintang continued to suppress the identities of Taiwan’s aboriginal population through forcing Chinese identity onto indigenous and continuing to promote the belief that indigenous lifestyles were inferior. This harsh discrimination culminated in the 2/28 Incident when a push for Taiwanese (both Chinese and Aboriginal) self-determination was brutally crushed by the Kuomintang military.
While Taiwanese aboriginals continue to face discrimination in contemporary times, the historic brutality that the aboriginals of Taiwan endured has prompted current Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen to issue an official apology for centuries of injustice committed against Taiwan’s native population. While this apology represents the beginning of attempts to make amends for the historical injustices that Taiwanese aboriginals have faced, it is more telling of a need for the experiences of Taiwan’s native population to be recognized. Especially in the current political climate, with mainland China’s desire to acquire Taiwan, it is incredibly important to consider how this conflict may affect the lives of Taiwanese aboriginals in the future. It must be acknowledged that Chinese dominance over the island has led to centuries of colonial oppression, and how the possibility of this continued dominance may impact the lives of one of the oldest cultures on the planet. Altogether, this discussion highlights the necessity for the international community to recognize the historical injustices committed against indigenous people across the world, as well as their claims to the lands that they have inhabited for thousands of years.
Works Cited
LIOU, LIANG-YA. "Taiwanese Postcolonial Fiction." PMLA 126, no. 3 (2011): 678-84. Accessed May 1, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41414140.
Ramzy, Austin. “Taiwan's President Apologizes to ABORIGINES for Centuries of Injustice,” August 1, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/world/asia/taiwan-aborigines-tsai-apology.html.
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