Editing Taiwanese indigenous peoples (section)

== Assimilation and acculturation ==
Archeological, linguistic and anecdotal evidence suggests that Taiwan's indigenous peoples have undergone a series of cultural shifts to meet the pressures of contact with other societies and new technologies.{{sfnp|Liu|2002|pp=75–98}} 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.{{sfnp|Shepherd|1993|pp=1–10}}{{sfnp|Kang|2003|pp=115–126}} In some cases groups of indigenous resisted colonial influence, but other groups and individuals readily aligned with 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.{{sfnp|Shepherd|1995|pp=58–63}}{{sfnp|Blusse|Everts|2000|pp=77–78}}

Particularly among the [[Plains Indigenous peoples|Plains indigenous people]], as the degree of the "civilizing projects" increased during each successive regime, the indigenous found themselves in greater contact with outside cultures. The process of [[Cultural assimilation|acculturation and assimilation]] sometimes followed gradually in 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.{{sfnp|Brown|2004|pp=38–50}} The removal or replacement of these brought about an incremental transformation from "Fan" (番, barbarian) to the dominant Confucian "Han" culture.{{sfnp|Brown|2004|pp=155–164}} 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.{{sfnp|Harrison|2001|pp=60–67}}{{sfnp|Duara|1995}}

Within the Taiwanese Han Hoklo community itself, differences in culture indicate the degree to which mixture with indigenous took place, with most pure Hoklo Han in Northern Taiwan having almost no indigenous admixture, which is limited to Hoklo Han in Southern Taiwan.{{sfnp|Brown|2004|pp=156–157}} Plains indigenous 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"{{sfnp|Brown|2004|p=162}} The ethnic identity of assimilated Plains indigenous in the immediate vicinity of Tainan was still known since a pure Hoklo Taiwanese girl was warned by her mother to stay away from them.{{sfnp|Brown|2004|p=157}} The insulting name "fan" was used against Plains indigenous by the Taiwanese, and the Hoklo Taiwanese speech was forced upon indigenous like the Pazeh.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/06/15/2003592824 |title=Pazeh writers get awards for preserving language |newspaper=[[Taipei Times]] |date=2016-09-04 |access-date=2016-09-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212507/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/06/15/2003592824 |archive-date=2016-03-03}}</ref> Hoklo Taiwanese has replaced Pazeh and driven it to near extinction.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/06/26/2003415773 |title=Pazeh poets honored at ceremony |newspaper=[[Taipei Times]] |date=2016-09-04 |access-date=2016-09-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182550/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/06/26/2003415773 |archive-date=2016-03-03}}</ref> Indigenous status has been requested by Plains indigenous peoples.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/07/15/2003595134 |title=Pingpu activists demand government recognition |newspaper=[[Taipei Times]] |date=2016-09-04 |access-date=2016-09-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812101920/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/07/15/2003595134 |archive-date=2016-08-12}}</ref>

=== Current forms of assimilation ===
Many of these forms of assimilation are still at work today. For example, when a central authority [[National language|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.{{sfnp|Hsieh|2006}} One important political aspect of this pursuit is petitioning the government for official recognition as a separate and distinct ethnic group.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

The complexity and scope of indigenous 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|Plains indigenous peoples]] into the mountains, where they became the Highland peoples of today.{{sfnp|Shepherd|1993}} A more recent view asserts that through widespread intermarriage between Han and indigenous between the 17th and 19th centuries, the indigenous were completely [[Sinicized]].{{sfnp|Lamley|1981|p=282}}{{sfnp|Meskill|1979|pp=253–255}} Finally, modern [[ethnography|ethnographical]] and [[anthropology|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 [[Han Taiwanese|Taiwan's ethnic Han]] demonstrate major cultural differences from Han elsewhere.{{sfnp|Brown|1996}}{{sfnp|Brown|2004}}

=== Surnames and identity ===
Several factors encouraged the assimilation of the [[Taiwanese Plains Aborigines|Plains indigenous]].{{NoteTag|One account of this "identity shift" occurs in the area called Rujryck by the Dutch, now part of [[Taipei]] city. A document signed by the village heads dating from the seventh year of the [[Qianlong Emperor|Qianlong era]] states: "We originally had no surnames, please bestow on us the Han surnames, Pan, Chen, Li, Wang, Tan, etc."<ref>{{Harvcol|Pan|2002|p=30}}</ref>}} Taking a Han name was a necessary step in instilling Confucian values in the indigenous.{{sfnp|Liu|2002|pp=31–32}} Confucian values were necessary to be recognized as a full person and to operate within the Confucian Qing state.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1996|pp=19–34}} 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 the [[Three August Ones and Five Emperors#Five emperors|Five Emperors]] of Han mythology.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1996|p=26}} 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 (surname)|Pan]] (潘) as a modification of their designated status as Fan (番: "barbarian").<ref name="pan">The change involves only the addition of a water radical to the character {{Harvcol|Shepherd|1993|p=384}}</ref> One family of Pazeh became members of the local gentry.{{sfnp|Pan|1996|pp=440–62}}{{sfnp|Hong|1997|pp=310–315}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

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 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.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1996|pp=19–34}}{{sfnp|Hsu|1980}} 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 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 [[Sinitic languages|Chinese]]. In addition, legal barriers to 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.<ref name="names">{{Harvcoltxt|Low|2005}} states: "According to a documentary released by the [[Democratic Progressive Party]]'s ethnic affairs department, although aborigines are now allowed to use their traditional names following a 1995 amendment to the Personal Names Act, only 890 out of the total of 460,000 indigenous Taiwanese have done so because of the past stigma attached to the names and the complicated formalities involved"</ref> 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 the allotted space.{{sfnp|Loa|2007}} In April 2022, the [[Judicial Yuan|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," was ruled unconstitutional after a non-indigenous father had taken his daughter to a [[household registration in Taiwan|household registration]] office to register her [[Truku people|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 of the Republic of China|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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lin |first1=Chang-shun |last2=Sabatier |first2=Luke |title=Constitutional Court strikes down legal clause on Indigenous status |url=https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202204010022 |url-access=subscription |website=Focus Taiwan |access-date=1 April 2022 |agency=Central News Agency |date=1 April 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220401142303/https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202204010022 |archive-date=  1 April 2022 }}</ref>