| "Voices from the Margin,"
what a sympathetic expression it sounds!
Who could be in the margin? Really, I don't pay much attention to the problems of the indigenous people in Taiwan. After reading the article from Free China Review, I start to notice what the bad condition the indigenous people are facing is. In the article, six indigenous persons are interviewed; some are males, and some, females, and almost of them are working for the rights of their tribes. According to their words, there are lots of unfair or inconvenient requirements or attitude from the government and society. For example, negative impression, name, political position, facial tattoos, mother tongues, and so on. Although many people say they want to protect the indigenous culture, like Han scholars and cultural workers or the government, they actually do nothing useful! So, these indigenous persons think the main solution is to waken up the indigenous people to notice their rights! Many people have the negative impression on the indigenous people, like drinking or prostitution. However, drinking is their tradition, and because of lower education, some girls are forced to do prostitution. So, we should treat them with equal attitude. Moreover, I think art should not be mixed with profits or fame. That's too sad many people steal the ideas or songs of the indigenous people. For example, in the Olympic in 1996, they steel one song by a couple of indigenous people as their subject song. Luckily, someone found the truth and pointed out who is the original singer. Furthermore, about their mother tongues, I think the condition is improved a little. Because I know some elementary schools in the eastern in Taiwan have the two languages teaching, mother tongue and Mandarin, it must help a lot to keep the culture! |