The Flawed "Indigenous Nation" Idea for Taiwan

I have just finished listening to a podcast episode in which Professor Shu-mei Shih was interviewed. Professor Shih genuinely supports Taiwan and opposes China's hegemony; however...

The idea of Taiwan becoming an "indigenous nation" is impractical and very dangerous. First, the academic community has already questioned whether all Taiwanese people, as she claims, have indigenous blood. Second, even if they did, would most Taiwanese people be able to shift their identity to Taiwanese indigenous peoples?

Don't misunderstand, I strongly support indigenous rights. I advocate for the restoration of traditional territories, the establishment of indigenous autonomous regions, and I believe every Taiwanese person should learn indigenous languages.

The problem is: the "indigenous nation" idea would immediately lead to a "hollowing out" of Taiwanese subjectivity, which is very detrimental to Taiwanese consciousness.

Think about it! In a society where most people don't understand indigenous languages, aren't familiar with Indigenous cultures, and lack an indigenous consciousness, if they suddenly abandon their own culture and heritage language to become something they don't understand (indigenous people), how long would it take for Taiwanese identity and culture to be re-established?

In reality, such a cultural, identity, and linguistic transformation isn't guaranteed to succeed even under an autocratic regime, let alone a democratic society!

Those who hold such views are, to some extent, poisoned by the concept of settler colonialism. They accept the identity of being perpetrators, and consequently, they feel that their own language (Taiwanese) and culture (Taiwanese culture) are guilty and don't belong to Taiwan!

This idea is terrifying! The result would be the self-destruction of the most significant and representative content of Taiwanese identity—Taiwanese and Taiwanese culture. And because indigenous and Hakka cultures are minorities, they wouldn't be able to fill the void. The ultimate outcome would be an empty space, allowing Chinese language and culture to become the default core of Taiwan.

I just don't get it! Settler colonialism exists all over the world, differing only in whether it occurred in ancient or contemporary times. Why should Taiwan, alone, be "handled" in this specific way? And precisely because Taiwan faces the threat from China, this kind of discourse becomes even more dangerous!

Taiwan is, of course, multilingual and multicultural, just like every other country in the world. However, the representative language of Taiwanese subjectivity and identity is "Taiwanese," and the representative culture is "Taiwanese culture." This point is consistent with practices in every country worldwide. We do not need to concede on this point, nor should we.

If we concede, it's only China's language and content that will take center stage, not Indigenous languages.