Center for Multi-cultural Studie

Implementation period of the project: October 22, 2019 to April 21, 2020

Project members: Project Director Liu, Yi-Chang, Co-director Alak Akatuang, Collaborator Shiung, Chung-Ching

The origin of the project:

The plains indigenous peoples of Taiwan, like the indigenous people in the eastern and mountainous areas, are groups that lived on the island of Taiwan before the Han people. The Beitouyang settlement in Jiali District, Tainan City may be part of the former site of the Xiaolong tribe, one of the Siraya communities of the plains indigenous people. Beginning in the 17th century, with the construction of Fort Zeelandia and the colonization and trade activities of the Dutch in Tainan, the Siraya ethnic group began to undergo settlement and cultural changes. After a large number of Han people entered the Tainan area in the 18th century, coupled with the Qing government's active land development and ethnic governance policies, some Beitouyang Xiaolong tribe people migrated to the Jibeishuo tribe.

During the Japanese occupation period, the Siraya people in Beitouyang still retained the cultural tradition of believing in Ali-zu since ancient times. This settlement has attracted the attention of scholars because of its unique terrain and culture. Under the leadership of Xin-Rong Wu, Kokubu Naoichi once investigated the Beitouyang settlement and opened the way of Siraya research. Later, he wrote an academic research treatise The Village of Sacrificial Pots (祀壺之村), pointing out the significance of Beitouyang settlement in the academic history of Siraya. 

After the end of the Second World War, the Kuomintang government continued the policy of the Japanese government for Taiwan’s aborigines. In Taiwan's first census held in 1956, there were 6,192 people in Tainan County who could not be classified in the national ethnic group classification system. They are neither from other provinces, nor are they Han Chinese from this province, nor do they belong to the nine indigenous groups called "mountain compatriots." This shows that in the 1950s Tainan area still had the identity of the "non-Han" plains indigenous peoples. However, in the subsequent registration or supplementary registration, these people all gave up their original identification, which shows the drastic change caused by administrative means. Then, under the government's deliberate implementation of the Chinese nationalism education, coupled with the overall environment and society's discrimination against aborigines, this intensified the collective stigmatization and identification reaction of the Siraya people "recognizing the Han." It wasn't until the rise of Taiwan's native culture and the voluntary name rectification movement of alpine aborigines that the Siraya people gradually regained their dignity and cultural identity in the 1990s. 

Since the 1960s, a group of Academia Sinica scholars and cultural workers in Taiwan began to conduct research on the plains indigenous peoples based on the research of Japanese scholars. Professor Pin-Hsiung Liu of the Institute of Ethnology of the Academia Sinica, who was the first to conduct the investigation of Alizu beliefs in the southern region, left a wealth of field materials for the Siraya people at that time. Other cultural workers, such as Xin-Rong Wu, Han-Guang Chen, Jia-Xing Lu, Chun-Mu Chen and others also left quite a lot of written records. Allowing Siraya culture to be more widely valued has also further clarified many confusions about Siraya culture, ethnic relations, self-identity, etc.

At present, the Siraya people have been sinicized deeply, but there are still many tangible and intangible cultural assets of the Siraya people in some settlements, which need to be investigated, registered and declared in detail. The "Kabuasua Night Festival" in Dongshan District, Tainan City has been designated as an important national folk custom by the Ministry of Culture, and the "Thâu-siā Night Festival" and "Beitouyang Night Festival" have also been registered as intangible cultural assets of indigenous peoples by the Tainan City Government. The song sung by various tribes at night festivals has become the most representative festival song of the Siraya people. Although the Siraya Night Festival has become widely known; however, other registered and declared cultural assets of Siraya are extremely limited. In fact, in addition to folk cultural assets, there are many other types of Siraya cultural assets, such as ruins, buildings, antiquities, traditional arts, etc., that have not yet been investigated and managed in detail. In addition, there are some Siraya cultural assets that are already known but have not been declared, such as the "Dutch Well" in Beitouyang, which urgently need to be dealt with.

In 2018, the research team carried out the "Phase 1 Preliminary Investigation and Research and Preservation Feasibility Evaluation Plan of Siraya Cultural Assets in Tainan City". Suggestions on the preservation and management of Laya cultural assets, it is suggested that the entrusting unit can formulate short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. In terms of short-term planning, tangible and intangible cultural assets that can be declared, registered and designated, and can be disposed of immediately, among which the "Dutch Well" is given priority. Therefore, this project will sort out the investigation and research of Beitouyang settlement and "Dutch Well" in Tainan City based on the existing basic data, and explore the changes of ethnic groups and settlements in Beitouyang Xiaolong Community from the concept of cultural landscape. In addition, the "Dutch Well" will be used as the main object to study its form structure, historical evolution and cultural landscape significance in the overall settlement. Finally, in accordance with the "Enforcement Rules of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act" or "Regulations Governing the Affairs of Indigenous Peoples' Cultural Heritage," report the "Dutch Well" as a tangible or composite cultural asset.