News Article - ATAYAL - The worldwide voice of the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan

Taiwan's aborigine people

As published in InternationalReports.net on 9/15/2002
by James E. Overly

As surprising as it may be, the original settlers of Taiwan were not Chinese for the most part, but thought to be from elsewhere in the Pacific, Indonesia and Malaysia. They began arriving in Taiwan perhaps some 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. It was not until the 19th Century that Chinese migrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces outnumbered the aborigines. Facing the influx of Chinese, the aborigines moved into the mountains, where they became known to the Chinese migrants as the “Mountain People.” Anthropologists have divided the aborigines into nine tribes: Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Tsou, and Yami. Other groups continue to petition the government for recognition as aborigine tribes. Generally speaking, the aborigines still retain much of their culture. Vestiges of this culture can be seen everyday in commercial tourist areas, such as Wulai near Taipei, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village near Sun Moon Lake, and the Taiwan Aboriginal Culture Park in Pingtung County. The most impressive of the traditional aborigine activities are the tribal festivals, of which the harvest festivals are generally the most important. Rich in pageantry, the spirited festivals provide visitors with a wonderful glimpse of the aborigines’ colorful traditional clothing, their beautiful singing and dancing, and their vivid culture. Possibly the largest aborigine gatherings are the annual Ami harvest festivals, held in Hualien and Taitung counties in July and August (the dates are set each year in early July by tribal officials). The annual Flying Fish Festival of Orchid Island’s Yami tribe is based on an ancient myth about a talking fish named Blackfin, who laid down a strict set of rituals and taboos about catching the fish. Flying fish remain a vital part of the Yami diet. The festival takes place during the second or third month of the lunar calendar. Aborigine pride got a boost this past summer when Chin-Feng Chen became the first Taiwanese to make it to baseball’s major leagues in the United States. When the Los Angeles Dodgers brought Chen up from the minors, it was a cause for celebration throughout Taiwan, and especially in the aborigine community.

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