Burn KMT, Burn (photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times)
My wife’s family participated in demonstration against KMT Central Standing Committee member Liao Wan-lung’s (廖萬隆) idiotic remarks this week. In fact, her cousin’s uncle is the fellow with sunglasses and the lighter in his hand in the above Taipei Times pic.
Aborigines may, as a rule, vote KMT – my wife’s fam are from Miaoli, staunch Blue country – but the ruling party is proving itself no less adept than the Greens at insulting Taiwan’s indigenous people.
At a committee meeting the week before last, Liao suggested to President Ma Ying-jeou that aborigines should be prevented from marrying into “other ethnic groups.” (Note the typical ignorant implication that Taiwan’s aborigines constitute one ethnic group.) He is also reported to have labelled them “mongrels.”
Statements like this have cropped up with monotonous regularity in the decade I have lived in Taiwan. From Annette Lu’s bizarre suggestion that aborigines relocate to Latin America, to Ma’s recent patronising guff , at the same meeting, about valuing aboriginal contributions to sport and music.
What makes Liao’s comments so risible is the fact that, as even a dabbler in Taiwanese history could tell you, a large proportion of this island fits his designation “mongrel.” I won’t cite the literature here but a skim through any work dealing with Qing quarantine and immigration policy from the late 17th to mid-18th centuries, coupled with population growth stats from the period, provides incontrovertible evidence of a strong degree of interethnicity in Taiwan.
Furthermore, it was Holo and Hakka Chinese that were mixing, primarily with Pingpu (plains) aborigines. To be sure, the Gaoshan (mountain) aborigines are probably a lot more ethnically pure – whatever that means – than the average Han Chinese here.
But I’m guessing that, having made the journey across the Strait a few hundred years later than the earliest immigrants, the Liao family maintains blessedly untainted bloodlines. Alas the same cannot be said for Liao’s brain which has clearly been infected with faecal bacteria.
Postscript: The Taipei Times, in true form, uses the fiasco as an excuse to Blue bash. I’m not really against this per se but the Greens have been just as bad, if not worse, at least in the time I have lived in Taiwan. Both sides want aboriginal votes but still superciliously look down on Taiwan’s indigenous people as, to borrow from The Breakfast Club’s Carl, untouchable peasants.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if some of those idiots making racist/sexist/wtf? statements were made to ACTUALLY resign instead of enjoying the virtual impunity offered by the Taiwanese political scene? Can you imagine if some white politician said that about aborigines in Australia or NZ, or here in Canada? That’s not even a KMT thing. That’s just typical Taiwanese know-nothingness.
I don’t think these kinds of comments are unique to Taiwan but I think it’s the level of idiocy here that is extraordinary, and the seniority of some of the people spouting off. In the UK, BNP types might recommend repatriation of ethnic minorities but a cabinet minister would have to walk.
In the countries you’ve mentioned, prominent public figures are much more circumspect in their remarks about native populations (I don’t use the word native as it can cause confusion here with Holo and some Hakka calling themselves native Taiwanese. The ‘nativist’ art and literature movement of the 70s and 80s never included aboriginal culture as far as I’m aware).
While I don’t like to tar everyone with the same brush – that makes us as bad as those we condemn – this kind of stuff is way too common in Taiwan and, yes, a three-month suspension is not good enough. Still, what can you expext when you can beat someone up in the Legislature and still turn up for work the next day?
A good, objective post here, James. Neither the KMT nor the DPP deserves the aboriginal vote. (But I think one of your points is aboriginal voters should not be expected to vote in a block; they should be seen for what they are – 23 groups of ethnically or culturally diverse peoples.)
“I won’t cite the literature here but a skim through any work dealing with Qing quarantine and immigration policy from the late 17th to mid-18th centuries, coupled with population growth stats from the period, provides incontrovertible evidence of a strong degree of interethnicity in Taiwan.” This is a point I’ve been pounding away at: most Taiwanese people have an aboriginal heritage. I’ve encountered lots of resistance though, even from Taiwanese people that deeply understand the issues and accounting of Taiwanese history, see eyedoc.
The James, the James, I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you that you have written an article mentioning the Pingpu without featuring the no-doubt informed comments of a certain “aboriginal activist”. I demand this oversight is repaired AT ONCE, otherwise I will to the cancel the subscription.
Meanwhile, yeah, the expected level of cultural understanding continues (says he, having just mocked the broken English stylings of a fellow acquaintance) .
I recommendation you choice continuation the subscribe, the G.
May be seeing that certain activist for champs league final this weekend as it goes.