A Multi-Ethnic Society of the Da-Ping and the Shang-Ping River Valleys in Northern Taiwan of the 19th Century

• Main Authors: Wei-Chu Wang, 王瑋筑
• Other Authors: Wen-Liang Li
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75218486275836670929

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 歷史學研究所 === 101 === In the 19th century, there are three ethnic groups living in the Da-Ping and Shang-Ping river valleys in northern Taiwan: the Hakka Han, the cultivated aborigine, and the wild aborigine. This thesis explores why and how the three different ethnic groups coexisted, and how these people interacted with the administrators when they were officially governed by the Qing dynasty in 1885 and by Japanese colonial government ten years later in 1895. The study lucidly illustrates the images of the aborigines and analyzes the relations among the different ethnic groups. The study also uses a view point of local society to review several important political and economic events and trying to identify the unofficial implication of these events. As a region study, the thesis firstly shows the relationships between the ethnic groups in this area are more complicated than simple racial hostility. The various and changeable interactions among the three groups demonstrate that any of the three could not ignore the existences of the other two. In other words, the existence of the three-ethic-group society is established on the counterbalance of their members. Second, the descriptions of the society recorded in the historical materials are considered and interpreted in its cultural context. The study shows the image of this society is the result of cultural blending. The actual impact of several important events on the local society during the 19th century is another topic of this study. The conclusions are summarized below. First, in order to prevent the Han people from being attacked by the aborigines living in the mountains, Qing dynasty in the last decade of the 18th century allowed the Han people who lived in the peripheral area of the mountains to build the fortification legally. This permission provided the Hakka Han with the opportunities to cross the original boundary and to form the multi-ethnic society. Second, as a result of executing the policy of “opening up the mountains and pacifying the aborigines” in 1885, the government officially claimed and ruled the society which had formed several decades ago. The original ethnic relationship and social order remained. The noticeable change was that the people were required to pay the partial profits of their economic activities to the government as the taxes. Third, at the beginning of the Japanese colonial period which began after 1895, the government put more emphasis on the investigation of the mountain area and the cultivation of the aborigine rather than on the profits. The thesis suggests that this period should be considered as groundwork rather than a transitory period for the subsequent aborigine subjugation period in the next century. Finally, the market-opening in 1860 influenced the local society profoundly. As the result of Qing government signing the Treaty of Tientsin after The Second Opium War, the four Taiwanese ports opened for the foreign trade. The new global demand for camphor instigated the Han people incessantly entering the mountain area to acquire the material and produce camphor, causing the reformation of the society order among the Chinese, the cultivated and the wild aborigines. This reveals how the global Capitalism and the Imperialism affected the ethnic relationship and the social life of this local society.