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Quora: How do the Taiwanese Aborigines feel about the Taiwan/China political environment?

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Yugan Talovich Live in Taiwan, teach Chinese lit and history.Upvoted by Lin Han-shih, Used to work at Taipei Economic and Cultural Center Office. Updated 4y

Obviously, I can’t speak for all aborigines. However, I have friends in 12 of the 16 officially recognized tribes (and some in unrecognized tribes) and have lived in an aboriginal village for over twenty years, so I do hear things.

Overall, the Aborigines support the KMT, the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party. This may be because the tribes suffered decades of atrocities at the hands of the Japanese. Then the KMT came, and tried to make them members of mainstream society. Of course this entailed diluting traditional culture (no more headhunting, folks), but in my experience I have never heard of government officials banning tribal ceremonies. Children were required to speak Mandarin in school, but spoke their own languages at home and outside the schoolroom. It was the missionaries, especially the Protestants, who told the Aborigines they would go to hell if they sang traditional songs, go to hell if they wore traditional clothes, go to hell if they held traditional ceremonies. (For instance, one Tsou man wanted to hold a ceremony; members of his church congregation tried to murder him for that, and he had to hide in the mountains until tempers cooled off.)

Recall that the KMT had undergone years of brutal war with the Japanese, and then war with the communists. The Japanese tried their best to ruin the economy of Taiwan when they left, so when the KMT arrived, they faced shambles and chaos. Even under these conditions, they reserved seats in legislative bodies for Aborigines, helped them through school, made sure they were fed and clothed, provided as much medical assistance as feasible, and treated them fairly in the police and military. Something that surprised me when I came to Taiwan in 1971 was that in tribal villages, most of the police were from the same tribe, could speak the languages, and knew the customs. Generally the aboriginal police handled tribal matters in their own way, according to local custom. Compare that to the situation in the US, where I had never heard of anything similar, or <Australia at the same time, when their aborigines were dealt with under the Flora and Fauna Act, not even considered human>. (Peter Webb has pointed out that this Flora and Fauna Act is not factual. However, there is no denying the extreme prejudice the native Australians have endured.)

Without going on in too much detail, my point is that the Aborigines felt that the KMT treated them well. If you treat an aborigine well, he will repay you threefold.

Compare this to the Taiwan Independence movement and the DPP (of the current President Tsai). Again, I haven’t spoken to everybody in the Independence movement, but by and large, they hold the aborigines in contempt; several have told me that the best thing to do with the aborigines would be to kill them all, because they are useless. Such attitudes do not inspire trust.

I recall a Bunun village where they had a problem with a Minnan Han businessman diverting their water into his trout pounds. For almost twenty years, the problem was at an impasse; they couldn’t close down his ponds, and he couldn’t get his ponds legalized. Then that county elected a DPP County Chief. The day the new Chief took office, the ponds were legalized. A delegation of Bunun elders went to the Chief’s office, where they knelt and pleaded with him. He pounded the table, shouted at them, insulted them, and had them thrown out of his office. Such attitudes do not inspire trust.

A singer from the Amis tribe, Panai, trusted President Tsai when she was running for office and worked indefatigably to help her. Tsai promised to apologize to the aborigines. Panai sang at Tsai’s inauguration. Tsai gave Panai her phone number and said, Phone me any time you have a problem. Tribal leaders were commanded to come to Tsai’s office to accept their apology, which amounted to blaming everything on the KMT. Within ten days, bulldozers were going through tribal villages, with official approval. When Tsai refused to answer Panai’s call for help or even to meet her, Panai and other aborigines took to the street outside the President’s Office for a nonstop protest. After a few months, there was a terrible downpour, with flooding in many parts of the Taipei area, so police and rescue personnel were sorely needed. Two hundred police were dispatched to remove the protesting aborigines. They moved to the entrance of a nearby subway station and continued their protest. Taipei Mayor Ko has no use for aborigines, so after he won reelection, he removed them from the subway station entrance. The nonstop protest continues to this day in the park there; it’s about day 860 and counting. The protestors sit on chairs, under umbrellas in pouring rain or blazing sunshine, but they don’t leave. The aborigines feel their backs are against the wall and they cannot back down any more.

So you see the situation is complicated. Mostly, the aborigines wish that the Chinese (anybody who doesn’t speak an Austronesian tribal language or take part in tribal ceremonies) would just go back to the mainland and leave them alone.

As to recent events in Hong Kong, overall response in Taiwan has been tepid. People don’t care very much. So far on local tribal social media, the only mention about it was on our traditional archery team’s group (I’m a member of our village archery team, albeit not extremely accurate; I’m the only non-aborigine.) One of the archers posted a clip of a young man calling for Hong Kong independence; a man rushed up and decked him with one solid punch, saying, “You’re Chinese, what kind of independence are you talking about?”

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Chatgpt的翻译

台灣原住民對台灣/中國政治環境的看法是什麼？

顯然，我無法代表所有原住民發言。然而，我在16個官方認可的部落中有12個部落的朋友（以及一些未被認可的部落），並且已經在一個原住民村莊生活了二十多年，所以我聽到了一些事情。

總的來說，原住民支持中國國民黨（KMT），也就是國民黨。這可能是因為這些部落在日本人統治下遭受了幾十年的暴行。然後國民黨來了，試圖讓他們成為主流社會的一員。當然，這也包括稀釋傳統文化（不再有獵頭行為了，朋友們），但在我的經驗中，我從未聽說過政府官員禁止部落儀式。孩子們在學校需要說普通話，但在家裡和校外他們說自己的語言。傳教士，尤其是新教徒，告訴原住民如果他們唱傳統歌曲會下地獄，如果他們穿傳統服裝會下地獄，如果他們舉行傳統儀式會下地獄。（例如，一位鄒族男子想舉行儀式，他的教會會眾成員試圖謀殺他，他不得不躲在山裡直到氣氛冷卻下來。）

請記住，國民黨經歷了多年與日本人的殘酷戰爭，然後與共產黨的戰爭。日本人離開時試圖盡其所能破壞台灣經濟，所以當國民黨到來時，他們面臨的是一片混亂。即使在這種情況下，他們仍在立法機構中為原住民保留了席位，幫助他們完成學業，確保他們有食物和衣服，提供盡可能多的醫療援助，並在警察和軍隊中公平對待他們。1971年我來台灣時，我感到驚訝的是，在部落村莊中，大多數警察來自同一個部落，能說部落語言，並了解習俗。通常，原住民警察按照當地習俗處理部落事務。與美國的情況相比，我從未聽說過類似的情況，或者與澳大利亞當時的情況相比，他們的原住民是根據《植物和動物法》處理的，甚至不被認為是人類。（彼得·韋伯指出，《植物和動物法》並不屬實。然而，不可否認的是澳大利亞原住民經歷了極端的偏見。）

簡單來說，原住民覺得國民黨對他們很好。如果你對原住民好，他們會三倍回報你。

將這與台灣獨立運動和民進黨（現任總統蔡英文的政黨）相比。再次說明，我沒有與獨立運動中的每個人交談過，但總的來說，他們鄙視原住民；有幾個人告訴我，最好的辦法就是殺掉所有原住民，因為他們毫無用處。這樣的態度不會激發信任。

我記得一個布農族的村莊，他們遇到一個閩南漢族商人將他們的水轉入他的鱒魚養殖池的問題。這個問題僵持了將近二十年；他們無法關閉他的養殖池，他也無法將養殖池合法化。然後那個縣選出了一位民進黨的縣長。新縣長上任的當天，養殖池被合法化了。一群布農族長老去縣長辦公室，跪下懇求他。他拍桌子，對他們大喊大叫，侮辱他們，並將他們趕出辦公室。這樣的態度不會激發信任。

一位阿美族的歌手，潘安邦，信任蔡英文在競選期間不遺餘力地幫助她。蔡英文承諾向原住民道歉。潘安邦在蔡英文的就職典禮上演唱。蔡英文給了潘安邦她的電話號碼，說：“任何時候有問題都可以打電話給我。”部落領導人被命令到蔡英文的辦公室接受道歉，這實際上是把一切責任推到國民黨身上。十天內，推土機在官方批准下穿過部落村莊。當蔡英文拒絕回應潘安邦的求助電話或甚至見面時，潘安邦和其他原住民走上總統辦公室外的街頭進行不間斷的抗議。幾個月後，發生了大暴雨，台北地區多處淹水，警察和救援人員急需。兩百名警察被派去驅散抗議的原住民。他們轉移到附近地鐵站的入口處繼續抗議。台北市長柯文哲對原住民毫無用處，所以在他連任後，他將他們從地鐵站入口處驅離。抗議持續到今天，在公園裡已經約860天並且還在持續。抗議者坐在椅子上，在大雨或烈日下打著傘，但他們不會離開。原住民感覺他們已經退無可退。

所以你可以看到情況是複雜的。大多數原住民希望中國人（任何不說南島部落語言或不參加部落儀式的人）回到大陸，讓他們自己生活。

至於最近香港的事件，台灣的整體反應冷淡。人們不是很關心。到目前為止，在當地部落社交媒體上，唯一的提及是在我們的傳統射箭隊的群組（我是我們村射箭隊的一員，雖然射得不太准）。其中一位射手發布了一段視頻，內容是一位年輕人呼籲香港獨立；一名男子衝上前給了他一記重拳，說：“你是中國人，談什麼獨立？”