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89-675: Historically, the plain was mostly inhabited by Taiwanese Aborigines , a small fraction of the population today. Since the era of the Qing Dynasty , the Chianan Plain became a main destination of Han immigrants. This area also supplies many food crops to the whole island of Taiwan since the Japanese-ruled era . The Chianan Plain faces the Taiwan Strait on the west, Taichung Basin on the north, Pingtung Plain on

178-462: A small colony in northern Taiwan (1626–1642) in present-day Keelung . However, Spanish influence wavered almost from the beginning, so that by the late 1630s they had already withdrawn most of their troops. After they were driven out of Taiwan by a combined Dutch and aboriginal force in 1642, the Spanish "had little effect on Taiwan's history". Dutch influence was far more significant: expanding to

267-584: A Han identity with a Han lineage. The degree to which any one of these forces held sway over others is unclear. Preference for one explanation over another is sometimes predicated upon a given political viewpoint. The cumulative effect of these dynamics is that by the beginning of the 20th century the Plains indigenous were almost completely acculturated into the larger ethnic Han group, and had experienced nearly total language shift from their respective Formosan languages to Chinese . In addition, legal barriers to

356-540: A brother in need. The brotherhood groups would link their names to a family tree, in essence manufacturing a genealogy based on names rather than blood, and taking the place of the kinship organizations commonly found in China. The practice was so widespread that today's family books are largely unreliable. Many Plains indigenous joined the brotherhoods to gain protection of the collective as a type of insurance policy against regional strife, and through these groups they took on

445-429: A central authority nationalizes one language, that attaches economic and social advantages to the prestige language. As generations pass, use of the indigenous language often fades or disappears, and linguistic and cultural identity recede as well. However, some groups are seeking to revive their indigenous identities. One important political aspect of this pursuit is petitioning the government for official recognition as

534-585: A naval encounter with Ming forces on 15 January 1576. The pirate Yan Siqi also used Taiwan as a base. In 1593, Ming officials started issuing ten licenses each year for Chinese junks to trade in northern Taiwan. Chinese records show that after 1593, each year five licenses were granted for trade in Keelung and five licenses for Tamsui . However these licenses merely acknowledged already existing illegal trade at these locations. Initially Chinese merchants arrived in northern Taiwan and sold iron and textiles to

623-562: A part of the Austronesian family. For centuries, Taiwan's indigenous inhabitants experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of colonizing newcomers. Centralized government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation , as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, inter-marriage and other intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity . For example, of

712-471: A population of more than 1,500 people, surrounded by smaller satellite villages. Siraya villages were constructed of dwellings made of thatch and bamboo, raised 2 m (6.6 ft) from the ground on stilts, with each household having a barn for livestock. A watchtower was located in the village to look out for headhunting parties from the Highland peoples. The concept of property was often communal, with

801-531: A separate and distinct ethnic group. The complexity and scope of aboriginal assimilation and acculturation on Taiwan has led to three general narratives of Taiwanese ethnic change. The oldest holds that Han migration from Fujian and Guangdong in the 17th century pushed the Plains indigenous peoples into the mountains, where they became the Highland peoples of today. A more recent view asserts that through widespread intermarriage between Han and aborigines between

890-598: A series of conceptualized concentric rings around each village. The innermost ring was used for gardens and orchards that followed a fallowing cycle around the ring. The second ring was used to cultivate plants and natural fibers for the exclusive use of the community. The third ring was for exclusive hunting and deer fields for community use. The plains indigenous peoples hunted herds of spotted Formosan sika deer , Formosan sambar deer and Reeves's muntjac as well as conducting light millet farming. Sugar and rice were grown as well, but mostly for use in preparing wine. Many of

979-520: A successful formal petition. The determining factors include collecting member genealogies, group histories and evidence of a continued linguistic and cultural identity. The lack of documentation and the extinction of many indigenous languages as the result of colonial cultural and language policies have made the prospect of official recognition of many ethnicities a remote possibility. Current trends in ethno-tourism have led many former Plains Indigenous peoples to continue to seek cultural revival. Among

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1068-485: A system that defined the aborigines relative to their submission or hostility to Qing rule. Qing used the term "raw/wild/uncivilized" ( 生番 ) to define those people who had not submitted to Qing rule, and "cooked/tamed/civilized" ( 熟番 ) for those who had pledged their allegiance through their payment of a head tax. According to the standards of the Qianlong Emperor and successive regimes, the epithet "cooked"

1157-471: A total of nine recognized peoples. During the early period of Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) rule the terms Shandi Tongbao ( 山地 同胞 ) "mountain compatriots" and Pingdi Tongbao ( 平地 同胞 ) "plains compatriots" were invented, to remove the presumed taint of Japanese influence and reflect the place of Taiwan's indigenous people in the Chinese Nationalist state. The KMT later adopted

1246-728: Is expressed in many ways by the indigenous peoples, including the incorporation of elements of their culture into cultural commodities such as cultural tourism , pop music and sports. Taiwan's Austronesian speakers were formerly distributed over much of the Taiwan archipelago, including the Central Mountain Range villages along the alluvial plains , as well as Orchid Island , Green Island , and Liuqiu Island . The bulk of contemporary Taiwanese indigenous peoples mostly reside both in their traditional mountain villages as well as increasingly in Taiwan's urban areas. There are also

1335-774: Is located in Sinshih , Shanhua and Anding Districts of Tainan City with a total area of 2,565 acres (10.38 km ), and is a part of the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). On 1 July 1993, the Executive Yuan approved the establishment of a science park in southern Taiwan as part of the Economic Revitalization Plan. The Phase I site of the park was approved in May 1995 and totaled 1,577 acres (6.38 km ), marking

1424-493: Is the origin and linguistic homeland of the oceanic Austronesian expansion , whose descendant groups today include the majority of the ethnic groups throughout many parts of East and Southeast Asia as well as Oceania and even Africa which includes Brunei , East Timor , Indonesia , Malaysia , Madagascar , Philippines , Micronesia , Island Melanesia and Polynesia . The Chams and Utsul of contemporary central and southern Vietnam and Hainan respectively are also

1513-512: The Five Emperors of Han mythology. Possession of a Han surname, then, could confer a broad range of significant economic and social benefits upon indigenous, despite a prior non-Han identity or mixed parentage. In some cases, members of Plains indigenous adopted the Han surname Pan (潘) as a modification of their designated status as Fan (番: "barbarian"). One family of Pazeh became members of

1602-577: The Philippines , Malaysia , Indonesia , Madagascar , and Oceania . Chipped-pebble tools dating from perhaps as early as 15,000 years ago suggest that the initial human inhabitants of Taiwan were Paleolithic cultures of the Pleistocene era. These people survived by eating marine life. Archeological evidence points to an abrupt change to the Neolithic era around 6,000 years ago, with

1691-536: The Three Kingdoms state of Eastern Wu are recorded visiting an island known as Yizhou in the spring of 230. They brought back several thousand natives but 80 to 90 percent of the soldiers died to unknown diseases. Some scholars have identified this island as Taiwan while others do not. The Book of Sui relates that Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty sent three expeditions to a place called " Liuqiu " early in

1780-519: The indigenous peoples of Taiwan , with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 600,303 or 3% of the island 's population. This total is increased to more than 800,000 if the indigenous peoples of the plains in Taiwan are included, pending future official recognition. When including those of mixed ancestry, such a number is possibly more than a million. Academic research suggests that their ancestors have been living on Taiwan for approximately 15,000 years. A wide body of evidence suggests that

1869-539: The plains indigenous peoples , which have always lived in the lowland areas of the island. Ever since the end of the White Terror , some efforts have been under way in indigenous communities to revive traditional cultural practices and preserve their distinct traditional languages on the now Han Chinese majority island and for the latter to better understand more about them. The founding of NDHU College of Indigenous Studies in 2001 signify an important milestone for

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1958-445: The subtropical monsoon climate and tropical monsoon climate, characterized by heavy rainfall in summer and warm temperatures throughout the year. Taiwanese Aborigines Nationally Recognized Locally recognized Unrecognized Taiwanese indigenous peoples , also known as Formosans , Native Taiwanese or Austronesian Taiwanese , and formerly as Taiwanese aborigines , Takasago people or Gaoshan people , are

2047-401: The 17th and 19th centuries, the aborigines were completely Sinicized . Finally, modern ethnographical and anthropological studies have shown a pattern of cultural shift mutually experienced by both Han and Plains indigenous, resulting in a hybrid culture. Today people who comprise Taiwan's ethnic Han demonstrate major cultural differences from Han elsewhere. Several factors encouraged

2136-466: The 7th century. They brought back captives, cloth, and armour. The Liuqiu described by the Book of Sui had pigs and chicken but no cows, sheep, donkeys, or horses. It produced little iron, had no writing system, taxation, or penal code, and was ruled by a king with four or five commanders. The natives used stone blades and practiced slash-and-burn agriculture to grow rice, millet, sorghum, and beans. Later

2225-529: The Chinese population put it at 2,000. There were two Chinese villages. The larger one was located on an island that formed the Bay of Tayouan. It was inhabited year-round. The smaller village was located on the mainland and would eventually become the city of Tainan. In the early 17th century, a Chinese man described it as being inhabited by pirates and fishermen. One Dutch visitor noted that an aboriginal village near

2314-567: The Dutch colony in the 17th century. In Zhengzhou , Henan, there exists a "Taiwan Village" (台灣村) whose inhabitants' ancestors migrated from Taiwan during the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty . In 2005, 2,674 people of the village identified themselves as Gaoshan. Archeological, linguistic and anecdotal evidence suggests that Taiwan's indigenous peoples have undergone a series of cultural shifts to meet

2403-433: The Dutch marriage customs as a means to circumvent the age-grade system in a push for greater village power. Almost all indigenous peoples in Taiwan have traditionally had a custom of sexual division of labor. Women did the sewing, cooking and farming, while the men hunted and prepared for military activity and securing enemy heads in headhunting raids, which was a common practice in early Taiwan. Women were also often found in

2492-716: The East Asian market to be a lucrative endeavor and recruited plains indigenous peoples to procure the hides. The deer trade attracted the first Han traders to indigenous villages, but as early as 1642 the demand for deer greatly diminished the deer stocks. This drop significantly reduced the prosperity of indigenous peoples, forcing many aborigines to take up farming to counter the economic impact of losing their most vital food source. Tainan Science Park 23°06′05″N 120°16′56″E  /  23.101282°N 120.282106°E  / 23.101282; 120.282106 Tainan Science Park ( Chinese : 台南科學園區 ) of Taiwan

2581-610: The Eastern Seas (1603), identifies the indigenous people of Taiwan as simply "Eastern Savages" ( 東番 ; Dongfan ), while the Dutch referred to Taiwan's original inhabitants as "Indians" or "blacks", based on their prior colonial experience in what is currently Indonesia. Beginning nearly a century later, as the rule of the Qing Empire expanded over wider groups of people, writers and gazetteers recast their descriptions away from reflecting degree of acculturation , and toward

2670-531: The European period (1623–1662) soldiers and traders representing the Dutch East India Company maintained a colony in southwestern Taiwan (1624–1662) near present-day Tainan . This established an Asian base for triangular trade between the company, the Qing dynasty and Japan , with the hope of interrupting Portuguese and Spanish trading alliances with China. The Spanish also established

2759-458: The Mountain peoples, and thus had more dealings with the foreign powers. The reactions of indigenous people to imperial power show not only acceptance, but also incorporation or resistance through their cultural practices By the beginning of the 20th century, the Plains peoples had largely been assimilated into contemporary Taiwanese culture as a result of European and Han colonial rule. Until

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2848-691: The Philippines in the Sa Huynh-Kalanay Interaction Sphere . Eastern Taiwan was the source of jade for the lingling-o jade industry in the Philippines and the Sa Huỳnh culture of Vietnam . This trading network began between the animist communities of Taiwan and the Philippines which later became the Maritime Jade Road , one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in

2937-620: The Plains groups that have petitioned for official status, only the Kavalan and Sakizaya have been officially recognized. The remaining twelve recognized groups are traditionally regarded as mountain indigenous people. Other indigenous groups or subgroups that have pressed for recovery of legal indigenous status include Chimo (who have not formally petitioned the government, see Lee 2003 ), Kakabu, Makatao, Pazeh, Siraya, and Taivoan. The act of petitioning for recognized status, however, does not always reflect any consensus view among scholars that

3026-889: The Qing Dynasty. Japanese started to rule Taiwan in 1895. In this era, the colonial government launched infrastructure and businesses on the Chianan Plain, such as the Western Line railway, the irrigation system of the Chianan Canal , and sugar production companies which were later combined into the Taiwan Sugar Corporation . After the Japanese Empire collapsed, the Republic of China held Taiwan. National Highway No. 1 and National Highway No. 3 , which pass through this region, were built in

3115-496: The ROC's Government Information Office officially lists 16 major groupings as "tribes," the consensus among scholars maintains that these 16 groupings do not reflect any social entities, political collectives, or self-identified alliances dating from pre-modern Taiwan. The earliest detailed records, dating from the Dutch arrival in 1624, describe the aborigines as living in independent villages of varying size. Between these villages there

3204-594: The Sediq were recognized as Taiwan's 14th official ethnic group. Previously the Sakizaya had been listed as Amis and the Sediq as Atayal. Hla'alua and Kanakanavu were recognized as the 15th and 16th ethnic group on 26 June 2014. A full list of the recognized ethnic groups of Taiwan, as well as some of the more commonly cited unrecognized peoples, is as follows: The People's Republic of China (PRC) officially recognizes indigenous Taiwanese as one of its ethnic groups under

3293-531: The Sino-Japanese trade center had a large number of Chinese and there was "scarcely a house in this village   ... that does not have one or two or three, or even five or six Chinese living there." The villagers' speech contained many Chinese words and sounded like "a mixed and broken language." Chen Di visited Taiwan in 1603 on an expedition against the Wokou pirates. General Shen of Wuyu defeated

3382-567: The Siraya, it was also necessary for couples to abstain from marriage until their mid-30s, when the bride's father would be in his declining years and would not pose a challenge to the new male member of the household. It was not until the arrival of the Dutch Reformed Church in the 17th century that the marriage and child-birth taboos were abolished. There is some indication that many of the younger members of Sirayan society embraced

3471-775: The Taiwanese Han Hoklo community itself, differences in culture indicate the degree to which mixture with aboriginals took place, with most pure Hoklo Han in Northern Taiwan having almost no Aboriginal admixture, which is limited to Hoklo Han in Southern Taiwan. Plains aboriginals who were mixed and assimilated into the Hoklo Han population at different stages were differentiated by the historian Melissa J. Brown between "short-route" and "long-route" The ethnic identity of assimilated Plains Aboriginals in

3560-626: The Taiwanese aborigines. During this period, Taiwan was referred to as Xiaodong dao ("little eastern island") and Dahui guo ("the country of Dahui"), a corruption of Tayouan, a tribe that lived on an islet near modern Tainan from which the name "Taiwan" is derived. By the late 16th century, Chinese from Fujian were settling in southwestern Taiwan. The Chinese pirates Lin Daoqian and Lin Feng visited Taiwan in 1563 and 1574 respectively. Lin Daoqian

3649-572: The Taiwanese indigenous peoples had maintained regular trade networks with numerous regional cultures of Southeast Asia before the Han Chinese colonists began settling on the island from the 17th century , at the behest of the Dutch colonial administration and later by successive governments towards the 20th century. Taiwanese indigenous peoples are Austronesians , with linguistic, genetic and cultural ties to other Austronesian peoples. Taiwan

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3738-409: The Taiwanese indigenous peoples in return for coal, sulfur, gold, and venison. Later the southwestern part of Taiwan surpassed northern Taiwan as the destination for Chinese traders. The southwest had mullet fish, which drew more than a hundred fishing junks from Fujian each year during winter. The fishing season lasted six to eight weeks. Some of them camped on Taiwan's shores and many began trading with

3827-506: The aborigines into named subgroups, referred to as "tribes". These divisions did not always correspond to distinctions drawn by the indigenous themselves. However, the categories have become so firmly established in government and popular discourse over time that they have become de facto distinctions, serving to shape in part today's political discourse within the Republic of China (ROC), and affecting Taiwan's policies regarding indigenous peoples. The Han sailor Chen Di , in his Record of

3916-429: The advent of agriculture, domestic animals, polished stone adzes and pottery. The stone adzes were mass-produced on Penghu and nearby islands, from the volcanic rock found there. This suggests heavy sea traffic took place between these islands and Taiwan at this time. From around 5000 to 1500 BC, Taiwanese indigenous peoples started a seaborne migration to the island of Luzon in the Philippines , intermingling with

4005-543: The allotted space. In April 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the Status Act for Indigenous Peoples was unconstitutional. The paragraph, which reads "Children of intermarriages between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples taking the surname of the indigenous father or mother, or using a traditional Indigenous Peoples name, shall acquire Indigenous Peoples status,"

4094-616: The approximately 26 known languages of the Taiwanese aborigines (collectively referred to as the Formosan languages ), at least ten are extinct , five are moribund and several are to some degree endangered . These languages are of unique historical significance, since most historical linguists consider Taiwan to be the original homeland of the Austronesian language family. Early Chinese histories refer to visits to eastern islands that some historians identify with Taiwan. Troops of

4183-448: The approximately 26 known languages of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples – collectively referred to as the Formosan languages – at least ten are now extinct , five are moribund and several are to some degree endangered . These languages are of unique historical significance since most historical linguists consider Taiwan to be the original homeland of the Austronesian language family . Due to discrimination or repression throughout

4272-526: The assimilation of the Plains indigenous . Taking a Han name was a necessary step in instilling Confucian values in the aborigines. Confucian values were necessary to be recognized as a full person and to operate within the Confucian Qing state. A surname in Han society was viewed as the most prominent legitimizing marker of a patrilineal ancestral link to the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) and

4361-416: The centuries, the indigenous peoples of Taiwan have experienced economic and social inequality, including a high unemployment rate and substandard education. Some indigenous groups today continue to be unrecognized by the government . Since the early 1980s, many indigenous groups have been actively seeking a higher degree of political self-determination and economic development . The revival of ethnic pride

4450-542: The colonial powers. This alignment could be leveraged to achieve personal or collective economic gain, collective power over neighboring villages or freedom from unfavorable societal customs and taboos involving marriage, age-grade and child birth. Particularly among the Plains indigenous people , as the degree of the "civilizing projects" increased during each successive regime, the aborigines found themselves in greater contact with outside cultures. The process of acculturation and assimilation sometimes followed gradually in

4539-621: The immediate vicinity of Tainan was still known since a pure Hoklo Taiwanese girl was warned by her mother to stay away from them. The insulting name "fan" was used against Plains indigenous by the Taiwanese, and the Hoklo Taiwanese speech was forced upon Aborigines like the Pazeh. Hoklo Taiwanese has replaced Pazeh and driven it to near extinction. Indigenous status has been requested by Plains indigenous peoples. Many of these forms of assimilation are still at work today. For example, when

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4628-675: The indigenous community based upon the qualifications drawn up by the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP). To gain this recognition, communities must gather a number of signatures and a body of supporting evidence with which to successfully petition the CIP. Formal recognition confers certain legal benefits and rights upon a group, as well as providing them with the satisfaction of recovering their separate identity as an ethnic group. As of June 2014, 16 people groups have been recognized. The Council of Indigenous Peoples consider several limited factors in

4717-488: The indigenous people for deer products. The southwestern Taiwanese trade was of minor importance until after 1567 when it was used as a way to circumvent the ban on Sino-Japanese trade. The Chinese bought deerskins from the aborigines and sold them to the Japanese for a large profit. When a Portuguese ship sailed past southwestern Taiwan in 1596, several of its crew members who had been shipwrecked there in 1582 noticed that

4806-429: The indigenous population. Dutch schools taught a romanized script ( Sinckan writing ), which transcribed the Siraya language. This script maintained occasional use through the 18th century. Today only fragments survive, in documents and stone stele markers. The schools also served to maintain alliances and open aboriginal areas for Dutch enterprise and commerce. The Dutch soon found trade in deerskins and venison in

4895-625: The individual and regional impact of the colonizers and their "civilizing projects". At times the foreign powers were accepted readily, as some communities adopted foreign clothing styles and cultural practices ( Harrison 2003 ), and engaged in cooperative trade in goods such as camphor , deer hides, sugar, tea, and rice. At numerous other times changes from the outside world were forcibly imposed. The plains indigenous peoples mainly lived in stationary village sites surrounded by defensive walls of bamboo . The village sites in southern Taiwan were more populated than other locations. Some villages supported

4984-715: The island by the 1340s. By the early 16th century, increasing numbers of Chinese fishermen, traders and pirates were visiting the southwestern part of the island. Some merchants from Fujian were familiar enough with the indigenous peoples of Taiwan to speak Formosan languages . The people of Fujian sailed closer to Taiwan and the Ryukyus in the mid-16th century to trade with Japan while evading Ming authorities. Chinese who traded in Southeast Asia also began taking an East Sea Compass Course ( dongyang zhenlu ) that passed southwestern and southern Taiwan. Some of them traded with

5073-454: The land had become cultivated and now had people working it, presumably by settlers from Fujian. When the Dutch arrived in 1623, they found about 1,500 Chinese visitors and residents. Most of them were engaged in seasonal fishing, hunting, and trading. The population fluctuated throughout the year peaking during winter. A small minority brought Chinese plants with them and grew crops such as apples, oranges, bananas, watermelons. Some estimates of

5162-477: The late 20th century. The Chianan Plain is a place of cultivation of wet rices and other minor food grains. It is the main planting area of sugarcane in Taiwan, but sugar production is being gradually reduced. The area can reap three rice harvests annually since the Chianan Canal was established, and also produces peanuts , corn , sweet potatoes and some floricultural plants and vegetables. The plain

5251-437: The latter half of the Japanese colonial era the Mountain peoples were not entirely governed by any non-indigenous polity. However, the mid-1930s marked a shift in the intercultural dynamic, as the Japanese began to play a far more dominant role in the culture of the Highland groups. This increased degree of control over the Mountain peoples continued during Kuomintang rule. Within these two broad eras, there were many differences in

5340-415: The local gentry. complete with a lineage to Fujian province. In other cases, families of Plains indigenous adopted common Han surnames, but traced their earliest ancestor to their locality in Taiwan. In many cases, large groups of immigrant Han would unite under a common surname to form a brotherhood. Brotherhoods were used as a form of defense, as each sworn brother was bound by an oath of blood to assist

5429-433: The mountains in the late 19th century, the terms Pingpu ( 平埔族 ; Píngpǔzú ; 'Plains peoples') and Gaoshan ( 高山族 ; Gāoshānzú ; 'High Mountain peoples') were used interchangeably with the epithets "civilized" and "uncivilized". During Japanese rule (1895–1945), anthropologists from Japan maintained the binary classification. In 1900 they incorporated it into their own colonial project by employing

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5518-535: The name Gāoshān (高山, lit.   ' high mountain ' ) The 2000 census identified 600 thousand Gāoshān living in Taiwan Island ; other surveys suggest this accounted for 21 thousand Amis, 51 thousand Bunun, 10.5 thousand Paiwan, with the remainder belonging to other peoples. They are descendants of Taiwanese indigenous living on this island before the 1949 evacuation of the PRC and tracking back further to

5607-629: The name Liuqiu (whose characters are read in Japanese as " Ryukyu ") referred to the island chain to the northeast of Taiwan, but some scholars believe it may have referred to Taiwan in the Sui period. During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), Han Chinese people started visiting Taiwan. The Yuan emperor Kublai Khan sent officials to the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1292 to demand its loyalty to the Yuan dynasty, but

5696-577: The northern part of Chianan Plain, and the Siraya people lived in the south. Han Chinese began to immigrate to the Chianan Plain since the European-ruled era of Taiwan . After the Koxinga defeated the Dutch to claim Taiwan in 1662, Han people ruled this region, and became the majority later. Most of them came from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou of Fujian , and Chaozhou of Guangdong , in the era of

5785-521: The office of priestesses or mediums to the gods. For centuries, Taiwan's aboriginal peoples experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of colonizing peoples. Centralized government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation , as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, intermarriage and other dispassionate intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity . For example, of

5874-512: The officials ended up in Taiwan and mistook it for Ryukyu. After three soldiers were killed, the delegation immediately retreated to Quanzhou in China. Another expedition was sent in 1297. Wang Dayuan visited Taiwan in 1349 and noted that the customs of its inhabitants were different from those of Penghu's population, but did not mention the presence of other Chinese. He mentioned the presence of Chuhou pottery from present day Lishui , Zhejiang , suggesting that Chinese merchants had already visited

5963-423: The older Negrito populations of the islands. This was the beginning of the Austronesian expansion . They spread throughout the rest of the Philippines and eventually migrated further to the other islands of Southeast Asia , Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar . Taiwan is the homeland of the Austronesian languages . There is evidence that indigenous Taiwanese continued trading with

6052-720: The pirates and met a native chieftain named Damila who presented them with gifts. Chen witnessed these events and wrote an account of Taiwan known as Dongfanji (An Account of the Eastern Barbarians). According to Chen, Zheng He visited the natives but they remained hidden. Afterwards they came into contact with Chinese people from the harbors of Huimin, Chonglong, and Lieyu in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. They learned their languages to trade with them. Chinese items such as agate beads, porcelain, cloth, salt, and brass were traded in return for deer meat, skins, and horns. During

6141-408: The plains indigenous peoples were matrilineal /matrifocal societies. A man married into a woman's family after a courtship period during which the woman was free to reject as many men as she wished. In the age-grade communities, couples entered into marriage in their mid-30s when a man would no longer be required to perform military service or hunt heads on the battle-field. In the matriarchal system of

6230-441: The prehistoric world. It was in existence for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. Four centuries of non-indigenous rule can be viewed through several changing periods of governing power and shifting official policy toward aborigines. From the 17th century until the early 20th, the impact of the foreign settlers—the Dutch, Spanish, and Han—was more extensive on the Plains peoples. They were far more geographically accessible than

6319-406: The pressures of contact with other societies and new technologies. Beginning in the early 17th century, indigenous Taiwanese faced broad cultural change as the island became incorporated into the wider global economy by a succession of competing colonial regimes from Europe and Asia. In some cases groups of indigenous resisted colonial influence, but other groups and individuals readily aligned with

6408-407: The proper romanization of that name. Commonly cited examples of this ambiguity include (Seediq/Sediq/Truku/Taroko) and (Tao/Yami). Nine people groups were originally recognized before 1945 by the Japanese government. The Thao, Kavalan and Truku were recognized by Taiwan's government in 2001, 2002 and 2004 respectively. The Sakizaya were recognized as a 13th on 17 January 2007, and on 23 April 2008

6497-533: The rainy season is in summer, thus the plain lacks rain in winter. Rivers which pass through this region are the Peikang River , Putzu River , Pachang River , Chishui River , Tsengwen River, Yenshui River and Erhjen River . These rivers flow over the plain roughly from the eastern mountainous area to the western seacoast, and discharge into the Taiwan Strait. About 6000 years ago, the lands near

6586-431: The relevant group should in fact be categorized as a separate ethnic group. The Siraya will become the 17th ethnic group to be recognized once their status, already recognized by the courts in May 2018, is officially announced by the central government. There is discussion among both scholars and political groups regarding the best or most appropriate name to use for many of the people groups and their languages, as well as

6675-565: The revitalization activity of Taiwanese indigenous people, which is Taiwan's first ethnocentric education system. The Austronesian Cultural Festival in Taitung City is one means by which community members promote indigenous culture. In addition, several indigenous communities have become extensively involved in the tourism and ecotourism industries with the goal of achieving increased economic self-reliance and maintaining cultural integration. Taxonomies imposed by colonizing forces divided

6764-465: The seacoast of the Chianan Plain were flooded by seawater, and emerged gradually since 5000 years ago. Several archaeological sites are located here, including some late neolithic cultures such as the Tahu Culture , which existed between 3500 and 2000 years ago. The Iron Age Niaosung Culture appeared from 2000 to 500 years ago. The Hoanya people are known in written history to have lived in

6853-476: The southeast, and lies to the west of foothills that extend from the Alishan Mountains . The area determined by dividing the groundwater zones of Taiwan is about 4,550 km (1,757 sq mi). Between broadest points, the plain is about 71 km (44 mi) wide and 110 km (68 mi) long. Average rainfall in this area is about 1600 mm, lowest in the whole island of Taiwan, and

6942-421: The southwest and north of the island, they set up a tax system and established schools and churches in many villages. When the Dutch arrived in 1624 at Tayouan ( Anping ) Harbor, Siraya-speaking representatives from nearby Saccam village soon appeared at the Dutch stockade to barter and trade; an overture which was readily welcomed by the Dutch. The Sirayan villages were, however, divided into warring factions:

7031-561: The term Peipo ( 平埔 ) for the "civilized tribes", and creating a category of "recognized tribes" for the aborigines who had formerly been called "uncivilized". The Musha Incident of 1930 led to many changes in aboriginal policy, and the Japanese government began referring to them as Takasago people ( 高砂 族 , Takasago-zoku ) . The latter group included the Atayal , Bunun , Tsou , Saisiat , Paiwan , Puyuma , and Amis peoples. The Tao (Yami) and Rukai were added later, for

7120-825: The use of all the earlier Japanese groupings except Peipo . Despite recent changes in the field of anthropology and a shift in government objectives, the Pingpu and Gaoshan labels in use today maintain the form given by the Qing to reflect indigenous' acculturation to Han culture. The current recognized indigenous are all regarded as Gaoshan , though the divisions are not and have never been based strictly on geographical location. The Amis, Saisiat, Tao and Kavalan are all traditionally Eastern Plains cultures. The distinction between Pingpu and Gaoshan people continues to affect Taiwan's policies regarding indigenous peoples, and their ability to participate effectively in government. Although

7209-510: The use of traditional surnames persisted until the 1990s, and cultural barriers remain. Indigenous peoples were not permitted to use their indigenous traditional names on official identification cards until 1995 when a ban on using indigenous names dating from 1946 was finally lifted. One obstacle is that household registration forms allow a maximum of 15 characters for personal names. However, indigenous names are still phonetically translated into Chinese characters , and many names require more than

7298-441: The village of Sinckan ( Sinshih ) was at war with Mattau (Madou) and its ally Baccluan, while the village of Soulang maintained uneasy neutrality. In 1629 a Dutch expeditionary force searching for Han pirates was massacred by warriors from Mattau, and the victory inspired other villages to rebel. In 1635, with reinforcements having arrived from Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia ), the Dutch subjugated and burned Mattau. Since Mattau

7387-573: The wake of broad social currents, particularly the removal of ethnic markers (such as bound feet, dietary customs and clothing), which had formerly distinguished ethnic groups on Taiwan. The removal or replacement of these brought about an incremental transformation from "Fan" (番, barbarian) to the dominant Confucian "Han" culture. During the Japanese and KMT periods centralized modernist government policies, rooted in ideas of Social Darwinism and culturalism, directed education, genealogical customs and other traditions toward ethnic assimilation. Within

7476-480: Was a pirate from Chaozhou who fled to Beigang in southwestern Taiwan and left shortly after. Lin Feng moved his pirate forces to Wankan (in modern Chiayi County ) in Taiwan on 3 November 1574 and used it as a base to launch raids. They left for Penghu after being attacked by natives and the Ming navy dislodged them from their bases. He later returned to Wankan on 27 December 1575 but left for Southeast Asia after losing

7565-796: Was frequent trade, intermarriage, warfare and alliances against common enemies. Using contemporary ethnographic and linguistic criteria, these villages have been classed by anthropologists into more than 20 broad (and widely debated) ethnic groupings, which were never united under a common polity, kingdom or "tribe". Since 2005, some local governments, including Tainan City in 2005, Fuli, Hualien in 2013, and Pingtung County in 2016, have begun to recognize Taiwanese Plain Indigenous peoples . The numbers of people who have successfully registered, including Kaohsiung City Government that has opened to register but not yet recognized, as of 2017 are: Taiwan officially recognizes distinct people groups among

7654-557: Was once a place of salt production, but most of the salt evaporation ponds have been abandoned in recent years. Additionally, many fish farms are located along the seacoast. There are several industrial parks located in Chianan Plain, such as Changhua Coastal Industrial Park and Linhai Industrial Park . Heavy industries situated in this area include oil refining, steel making and shipbuilding. It also has two relatively newer high-tech industrial parks named Tainan Science Park and Kaohsiung Science Park . The Chianan Plain belongs to

7743-793: Was ruled unconstitutional after a non-indigenous father had taken his daughter to a household registration office to register her Truku descent. Though the applicant was of Truku descent through her mother, her application used her father's Chinese surname and was denied. The Constitutional Court ruled that the law, as written, was a violation of gender equality guaranteed by Article 7 of the Constitution , since children in Taiwan usually take their father's surname, which in practice, meant that indigenous status could be acquired via paternal descent, but not maternal descent. Indigenous Taiwanese are Austronesian peoples , with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian ethnic groups, such as peoples of

7832-460: Was synonymous with having assimilated to Han cultural norms, and living as a subject of the Empire, but it retained a pejorative designation to signify the perceived cultural lacking of the non-Han people. This designation reflected the prevailing idea that anyone could be civilized/tamed by adopting Confucian social norms. As the Qing consolidated their power over the plains and struggled to enter

7921-405: Was the most powerful village in the area, the victory brought a spate of peace offerings from other nearby villages, many of which were outside the Siraya area. This was the beginning of Dutch consolidation over large parts of Taiwan, which brought an end to centuries of inter-village warfare. The new period of peace allowed the Dutch to construct schools and churches aimed to acculturate and convert

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