Book Description
The focus of this book is on the PingPu peoples in Taiwan and their right to official recognition as "indigenous peoples" by the Taiwanese government. The result of centuries of colonization, indigenous tribes in Taiwan have faced severe cultural repression because of the government's refusal to accept ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity. The PingPu Status Recognition Movement is the result of a decade of activism by impassioned people seeking the right to self-determination, autonomy, and tribal legitimacy from the Han-Chinese-controlled Taiwanese government.
This book examines, through in-depth interviews, questionnaires, field observations, and analysis of governmental and United Nations documents, the perspectives of those directly involved in the movement, as well as those affected by "indigenous" status recognition. Study of the PingPu Indigenous movement is vitally important as it publicly declares Taiwanese Indigenous population's humanity and collective rights and provides a more comprehensive analysis of identity-based movements as a fundamental form of collective human rights claims.
About the author
Jolan Hsieh is a Taiwanese indigenous scholar, feminist, and activist. Her book The Changes of Tribal Membership and Indigenous Identification in the U.S. (2002) was published in Taiwan. She is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Indigenous Cultures at National DongHwa University, prior academic position was at the Center for Urban Inquiry at Arizona State University.
