The Gaoshan ethnic group currently has a population of more than 400,000. They are mainly distributed in the central mountainous area, the eastern longitudinal valley plain and Orchid Island in Taiwan Province. There are more than 291,000 people in Taiwan, and the distribution area is about 16,000 square kilometers. The Pingpu people are mainly scattered in On the western plain, the population is about 100,000. There are also nearly 3,000 people scattered in coastal areas such as Fujian and Zhejiang on the mainland. The Gaoshan people living in Taiwan Province are divided into many branches due to differences in region, language, and culture, mainly including the Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Rukai, Beinan, Cao, and Yami and Saisiyat, with the Amis being the largest population. Since the Pingpu people are scattered throughout Taiwan, they have been basically Chineseized since the 20th century.

After the Qing Dynasty unified Taiwan, the Gaoshan people were collectively called the "Fan people". It is also divided into "Eastern Fan", "Western Fan", "Southern Fan" and "Northern Fan" due to different distribution areas, or it is divided into "Gaoshan Fan" and "Pingpu Fan" based on differences in residential terrain. According to the level of development and their relationship with the Han people, they are divided into "wild fan", "raw fan" and "ripe fan". During the Japanese imperialist occupation of Taiwan, the Gaoshan people were called the "Gaoshan people" and the "Fan people". After Taiwan was regained, the Taiwanese authorities once used the name "Gaoshan people", and later also called "mountain people", "mountain people", "ancestors", "aboriginals", etc. In 1994, after the "Name Return Movement" launched by Taiwan's Gaoshan people, Taiwan officially recognized the title of "aboriginal people." The "Gaoshan people" we are talking about here are the names given to Taiwan's ethnic minorities by the people of the motherland after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945. After liberation, in the 1953 national census, the relevant units of the State Council also officially adopted and announced the name Gaoshan ethnic group.

There are many theories about the origin of the Gaoshan people, mainly the following three: 1. Aboriginal residents said: Lian Heng mentioned in "General History of Taiwan" that "the people of Gaoshan are actually primitive", believing that The Gaoshan people are the earliest residents of Taiwan; 2. From the south: Mainly based on the fact that the Gaoshan people (Pingpu people) have many similar characteristics to the Malays in terms of physique, language, culture, etc., it is believed that the Gaoshan people come from the Philippines and Borneo The Malays of the islands, but with the new discoveries of archeology, ethnology and ethnology in Taiwan, this theory has been shaken; 3. From the West, also known as the mainland theory, it is mainly based on archaeological excavations to prove that the Gaoshan people are primitive The culture is of the same type as the primitive culture along the southeastern coast of the motherland. Therefore, it is claimed that the Gaoshan people in Taiwan are derived from a branch of the ancient Yue people in the mainland. In recent years, the latest archaeological discoveries, documentary records and folklore of the Gaoshan people have proven the multi-origin theory of the Gaoshan people. That is, the Gaoshan people mainly come from the ancient Yue people along the southeastern coast of the motherland, and a few come from the Ryukyu Islands in the northeast. The residents of the Philippines, Borneo Islands and Micronesian Islands in the south integrated with the Guyue people who migrated earlier, and gradually developed into today's Gaoshan people.

2. The language and writing of the Gaoshan people

The Gaoshan people do not have their own writing, but they have their own national language. Due to the large differences in pronunciation in the regions where the Gaoshan people live, it is sometimes difficult to communicate with each other. After investigation, it was confirmed that the Gaoshan language belongs to the Indonesian language family of the Austronesian language family. There are more than 20 languages ??spoken by the Gaoshan people, and 13 are currently mainly spoken, which can be divided into three major language groups: Atayal, Cao and Paiwan. Their general characteristic is that they are polysyllabic and toneless languages. Since the Gaoshan people have lived and worked together with the Han people for a long time, many Gaoshan people also speak Hokkien.

3. The production technology of the Gaoshan people

Because the Gaoshan people have been brutally ruled by foreign colonists for a long time, the productivity has not been well developed, and the production development of the Gaoshan people in various regions has also been difficult. Very unbalanced. The economic development level of the Gaoshan people living in the Pingpu area is roughly the same as that of the Han people. Agriculture is already very developed in most areas where the Amis and Atayal people live. However, the economy of the Gaoshan people living in the mountainous areas, such as the Paiwan people and the Bunen people, is The level of development is relatively backward. Hunting, fishing and gathering are still retained, but they have taken a secondary position in economic life and are only used as an auxiliary income during the leisure time. Among the Gaoshan people who live in mountainous areas, barter is more common.

In the long-term production practice, the Gaoshan people have formed a unique grassroots organization - "She". A She is a natural village, a small She is composed of one clan, and a large She is composed of several clans. Generally, a large She can be There are up to 1,000 people, and small societies have 500 or 600 people. They practice democratic politics, and major issues are decided by the social conference.

The heads of the society include the headman (leader), the priest (or wizard) and the council of elders. It is the highest authority of the society. The leader leads farming, fishing and hunting, adjudicates internal disputes, and helps the priests organize sacrificial activities.

Most Gaoshan societies use the clubhouse as the activity center of the society and also as an educational and training place for male youth groups. Age organization is a hierarchical system within the society in order of age. There are many differences in the age levels of each branch, which can be roughly divided into infancy, youth, youth, adulthood and old age. All men must be classified into the corresponding age class and responsible for a certain social division of labor. Every few years, a promotion ceremony is held. Starting from teenagers, basic training is provided strictly according to gender. Men are trained in hunting and farming skills; women are trained in textiles, housework and gathering. Once a man reaches adulthood, he must hold a grand coming-of-age ceremony and be promoted to the youth level, enter a club for room and board, and participate in collective labor and combat. After the young people are recognized as formal members of the tribe after the Chengding Ceremony, they have the right to participate in social and political life.

Gaoshan people have many taboos in productive labor, daily life and sacrifices. For example, you are not allowed to interact with outsiders during the harvest period, and you are not allowed to enter other people's fields without permission. Men were not allowed to touch hemp while hunting for fear of getting lost or injured. Women are not allowed to touch men's shotguns and weapons, and men are not allowed to touch women's looms. Women are forbidden to use knives and axes after pregnancy, and are forbidden to eat ape meat, lynx meat, pangolin meat, and pedicled fruits.

4. The religious beliefs of the Gaoshan people

The religious beliefs of the Gaoshan people include soul worship, ancestor worship, totem worship, etc. The Gaoshan people generally believe that the soul will live forever after death, and they silently protect their descendants. Therefore, the soul is generally revered as a god, and most of the belief in gods is the worship of ancestors. Therefore, we regard the ancestral precepts as God's will and dare not violate them.

The Gaoshan people have different sacrificial activities in different areas. Those who live in the plains have sowing sacrifices, insect repelling sacrifices, and harvest sacrifices. The Gaoshan people who live in mountainous and coastal areas have hunting sacrifices and fishing sacrifices. wait.

Witchcraft is relatively popular among the Gaoshan tribe. Its divination methods include water divination, ladle divination, bird divination, etc., and there are many forms of witchcraft books.

5. The history of the Gaoshan people

In 230, Wu Sunquan sent Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to lead 10,000 people to Taiwan and brought back thousands of Gaoshan people

From 1127 to 1279, the Southern Song Dynasty government placed Penghu under Jinyang County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province

From 1271 to 1294, the Yuan Dynasty government sent people to Taiwan and established an "inspection department" in Penghu to administer Penghu Taiwan

Zheng Chenggong marched into Taiwan from 1661 to 1662 and recovered Taiwan in 1662

In 1683, the Qing government unified Taiwan

In 1885, Taiwan was established as a province, and Liu Mingchuan was appointed governor of Taiwan

< p>In 1895, the Sino-Japanese "Treaty of Shimonoseki" ceded Taiwan to Japan. The Gaoshan and Han people of Taiwan dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders in the battles against the cessation of Taiwan.

Published at the Cairo Conference in 1943 The declaration determined that Taiwan and other places would be returned to China

Taiwan was restored in 1945

The February 28 Uprising broke out in 1947, and Gaoshan people from all over the country participated in the struggle

6. Gaoshan people Literature

In the historical process of national development, the Gaoshan people have created and spread rich folk literature, mainly in the form of folk songs and mythological stories.

The folk songs of the Gaoshan ethnic group are very rich. The traditional folk songs of the Gaoshan ethnic group have the themes of praising labor, praising ancestors, and singing about weddings and banquets. They simply and vividly express the working life and emotions of love and hatred of the Gaoshan people. . Modern Gaoshan folk songs mostly express productive labor and struggle, love and marriage, dance music and life songs, hometown songs and nursery rhymes, etc.

Myths and stories are an important part of the Gaoshan people’s folk literature. Due to the relatively backward social productivity level of the Gaoshan people, people have limited understanding of nature and often use imagination to explain natural phenomena and life phenomena. This is why myths and stories are produce. The main contents of the myths created by the Gaoshan people include: legends about human origins and customs; legends about the struggle for the land, social labor and natural phenomena; legends about animals and plants, and about Taiwan and mainland China, the Gaoshan people and Legends about the historical origins between the Han people, etc. These myths and stories are passed down orally through the Gaoshan people and continue to this day.

7. Music of Gaoshan people

Gaoshan people are very fond of music and dance. Most of their music is accompanied by dance and played with unique musical instruments of Gaoshan people.

The main musical instruments of the Gaoshan people include mouth qin, bamboo flute, nose flute and bow qin. The mouth piano is about ten centimeters long and two or three centimeters wide. It is cut into thin slices of bamboo with a slender hole in the center. One end of the hole is inlaid with a very thin copper tongue. The right end of the bamboo slice is tied with a string. The left hand Put the convex surface on your mouth, gently pull the string with your right hand to vibrate the copper tongue to make a sound, and match it with your breathing to form a rhythm. The nose flute is an instrument made of two bamboo flutes about 37 or 8 centimeters long tied together and played through the nostrils. The shape of the bow is like a Hu bow. The bowstring is made of Yueticao fiber. The lower end is held tightly with the left hand, and the bowstring is played with the thumb and index finger of the right hand to produce sound.

At every sacrificial event, the Gaoshan people gather together to sing and dance to express their happy mood.

8. Dance of the Gaoshan people

The folk songs and dances of the Gaoshan people have a long historical tradition and have become an indispensable part of the lives of the Gaoshan people.

The dance of the Gaoshan people mainly simulates, reflects and reproduces the movements and scenes of fishing, hunting, farming and other production and life, and has a distinctive primitive dance color. Its content is rich and colorful, and its form is mostly group dance. The number of people ranges from dozens to hundreds or even thousands. Often with a blazing bonfire as the center, people gather to drink, and while they are drunk, they sing and dance together. Everyone joins hands to form a circle, sometimes "linking arms to surround", sometimes "linking arms to sing", stamping feet, jumping, swaying, waving hands rhythmically, The scene was spectacular and lively. Common folk dances of the Gaoshan ethnic group include:

Hand-holding dance: It is the most popular and representative dance form of the Gaoshan ethnic group. People usually refer to it as the Gaoshan ethnic dance. It is based on the idea that everyone joins hands. The main characteristics are singing and dancing.

Pestle Song: The Gaoshan people have the habit of pounding rice with a pestle and mortar. The Pestle Song expresses such a labor scene. During the dance, women dress in festive costumes, wear flowers on their heads, hold a pestle around the mortar, and sing During the dance, the rhythm changes from slow to fast to create a unique and interesting labor movement.

Hair tossing dance: It is one of the unique dances of Yamei women. Generally, there is no limit to the number of participants, as long as they have long hair. During the dance, the women line up in a row, hold their arms together, touch their chests with their hands, step back and forth, and slowly shake their bodies and long hair. As the melody of the music speeds up, the swings of the body and head become larger and larger, and gradually reach a climax: moving forward, bending the knees and bending over, tossing the long hair forward, then retreating, straightening the waist, and quickly tossing the hair up. This goes back and forth, over and over again. The hair swing dance takes the long and fluttering black hair as the centerpiece of the performance. It contains strong primitive vitality and has always been deeply loved by the Gaoshan people.

9. Art of the Gaoshan people

The Gaoshan people are rich in artistic creativity. Their handicrafts mainly include textiles, bamboo weaving, rattan weaving, wood cutting, carving, bamboo cutting and pottery making. The Paiwan people's wood carving art is quite exquisite, and cutting is a famous traditional craft. They can cut into various utensils with national characteristics using only a knife.

Carving craftsmanship is more common in their daily lives. There are round carvings and relief carvings, as well as line carvings, hollow carvings and hollow carvings. Some daily utensils, decorations, and musical instruments are engraved with various beautiful patterns such as characters, animals, and flowers. The knife skills are strong and delicate, full of natural appeal, and the images are very vivid and lifelike. The Paiwan people's carved pots, screens, carved panels (a kind of panel in the house), back chairs, wooden pillows, wooden barrels, wooden spoons, pipes, etc. have clever decorations and exquisite carvings. The carved pillars in the "spiritual house" for worshiping ancestors are even more impressive. The beams, eaves, sills, etc. of the houses are all colorfully carved and very beautiful, with snake-shaped carvings being the most common. The carvings on the Yamei Mermaid Boat are also very famous. Humanoid and geometric patterns are carved on both sides of the boat, which are very beautiful.

In terms of textiles, the Gaoshan people knew how to weave "fanbu" from hemp in ancient times. Among the Atayal and Saisiyat tribes, it has always been a custom that "men use martial arts and women use weaving" to determine their social status. Their weaving methods are basically the same. They all have vertical spinning shafts, which are twisted by hand and then wound on the shaft. The looms are relatively primitive flat waist looms. The two ends of the cloth clamping board of the loom are hung on the weaver's waist, and the end of the warp thread is knotted on the warp tube or warp shaft, which is stepped on with two feet. The Ami, Yamei and Beinan people use two wooden pillars inserted into the ground to hold the warp boards in place without stepping on them. But the cloth board is still tied to the waist. The weaver woman sits on the ground or on a stool and engages in weaving.

According to traditional customs, women work in the weaving huts and men are not allowed to enter. Textiles mainly include white linen and white and brown parallel striped linen. Embroidery and cross-stitching are performed on cloth for various decorations.

Gaoshan women are not only able to weave linen with various colorful patterns, but also produce many exquisite works in embroidery. The Gaoshan people add a lot of embroidery on their clothes, pants, chests, headscarves, etc., with the most horizontal patterns and bright colors.

10. Gaoshan people’s entertainment

Takraw ball and swinging are popular recreational activities among Gaoshan Paiwan people. The takraw ball originated from the "Five-Year Festival", which is an important ceremony to pray for the blessings of ancestors during the Five-Year Festival. The priests and elders stand on a high platform and throw the takraw ball high, and while pulling the long rope, they sing loudly The name of the mascot symbolizes longevity, prosperity, martial arts achievements, etc. Young people hold prods and compete to prick each time. Every time a prick is struck, the audience shouts and shouts, and the crowd is excited. The person who is pricked will also be treated as a hero and receive the highest honor.

Swinging is another recreational activity that young men and women actively participate in. When swinging, the girl sits on the rattan mat of the swing, ties a long rope, and asks the young man to pull and control, and the two sides cooperate.

11. Clothing of the Gaoshan people

The clothes of the Gaoshan people pursue a variety of colors and tend to be bright and gorgeous. The costumes of the Gaoshan people in each region are different. Except for the Paiwan people, there is no big difference between the costumes of the leaders and people in other regions. The Atayal and Saisiya people wear shawls, vests and breastplates on the upper body, and trousers and leg wraps on the lower body. cloth. Clothing styles are different for men and women, and are mostly made of linen and cotton. Bununs and Cao people have headcloths, leather waistcoats, chest scarves, belly wraps, leg wraps, etc. Women also have short tops and trousers. Paiwan men wear short jackets similar to Han Chinese mandarins, while women wear long gowns and aprons. Ami men wear long-sleeved short-breasted tops, aprons, shawls, and turbans. Young women's attire is roughly the same as that of men, but their skirts are longer and they have turbans. Yamei men wear double-breasted waistcoats and thongs, while women, in addition to sleeveless blouses, also wear aprons and blouses that extend diagonally from the shoulders to the armpits.

In addition, the clothing of Gaoshan men is generally equipped with feather crowns, horn crowns, and flower crowns. Generally, women from brother ethnic groups like to wear flowers as crowns, and it can be said that it is a characteristic of Gaoshan men to wear flowers as crowns. Men of some tribes also wear earrings, headdresses, footwear, armbands, and bracelets to look colorful. The clothing of Gaoshan women is basically open-front style, with exquisite and beautiful geometric patterns embroidered on the skirt and sleeves. This kind of open-front clothing is suitable for subtropical climates. It can dissipate heat quickly and keep cool. It can also easily show the plump and strong body shape of the human body, making people feel lively, free and charming. Women wear knee-length shorts on their lower bodies, head beads on their heads, bracelets on their wrists, colorful belts on their waists, and garlands of flowers around their necks. Their hats are also very distinctive. Men wear rattan hats when going up the mountain. There is a circular pattern on the top of the hat, which is the totem symbol of the Yamei people.

The clothing of men and women of the Gaoshan people is colorful, gorgeous and exquisite. The most representative clothing is Beizhu Yi, also known as Beizhu Yi. This kind of clothing is made of beads carved from shells or small round holes, which are tied up with twine and sewn on the clothing in horizontal lines. A beaded clothing requires about 50,000 to 60,000 shell beads. In the past, it was usually used as a dress for chiefs or clan leaders. Take the current collection as an example: a collarless, sleeveless, buttonless double-breasted long coat, 100 centimeters long and 44 centimeters wide. It is made of original white linen woven with red patterns as the base. The whole body is decorated with strings of shells cut from shells. There are more than 2,700 rows of about 80,000 shell beads. The back is decorated with three rows of strings of beads with copper bells. , four strings in each row. Because there are many shell beads and the workmanship is complicated, it takes a long time to make, so it is very precious. Judging from the shape of the shells, the shells of the Atayal people are mostly white, dazzling, and neatly arranged horizontally, giving people a pure, unified and gorgeous feeling. The common colors of Paiwan people's shells are orange, yellow, and green. In recent years, some shells are mostly black or dark yellow. The workmanship is more detailed, with more patterns and portraits, and the beads are thin, round and transparent, showing the pursuit of perfection. Gorgeous style. The ancient beaded clothing is long, flat, dull, and obscure, but the local people regard the ancient beaded clothing as precious and proud. This is related to the simple and honest folk custom of worshiping ancestors. Shell clothing has a long history. One of my country's earliest geographical works, "Yu Gong" records: "The island barbarians wear flowers and weave shells in baskets." If it refers to this kind of shell clothing, it has a history of more than two thousand years. Shell clothing can sometimes be used as currency, but it is more of an aesthetic appreciation value. This is a contribution of the Gaoshan people to Chinese national culture.

12. The diet of Gaoshan people

Gaoshan people usually eat three meals a day, and in some areas, they eat two meals a day. Staple foods include rice, millet, taro, etc. The Yamei people take water taro as their staple food. In terms of the preparation method of staple food, most high mountain people like to boil rice into rice, or steam glutinous rice and cornmeal into cakes and glutinous rice cakes.

Alpine vegetables come from a wide range of sources. Most of them are grown, and a small amount rely on collecting. Common ones include pumpkins, leeks, radishes, cabbage, potatoes, beans, peppers, ginger and various wild vegetables. Gaoshan people generally like to eat ginger. Some people use ginger directly dipped in salt as a dish; some use salt and chili to pickle it.

The source of meat mainly comes from raised pigs, cattle, and chickens. In many areas, fishing and hunting are also a supplement to the daily meat diet. Especially for the high-mountain people living in the mountains and forests, almost all the prey they capture is It is the main source of daily meat. The Gaoshan people like to eat sticky millet cakes, and the Paiwan people like to mix peanuts and animal meat into the sticky millet and roll it up with leaves to steam it.

Gaoshan people generally did not drink boiled water in the past, nor did they have the habit of drinking tea. Atayal people like to drink cold water soaked with ginger or chili. It is said that this drink can cure abdominal pain. In the past, when people went hunting in the mountains, they still had the habit of drinking the blood of animals.

Except for the Yamei people, all Gaoshan people are fond of drinking. They usually drink home-brewed rice wine, such as corn wine, rice wine and potato wine. Whenever they encounter weddings, births, festivals, house building, farming, fishing, hunting and sacrifices, they usually make wine first and get together for carnival. The most common traditional wine vessels are ladles, bamboo tubes, wooden spoons, wooden cups, pottery altars, and pottery cups. The wooden cups of the Paiwan people are very distinctive. Ami and Paiwan adult men and women also like to chew betel nuts.

13. Living of the Gaoshan people

The houses of the Gaoshan people living in the mountainous areas are mostly wooden houses with thatched roofs. In some areas, the windows are one or two feet deeper than the ground. It is also one or two feet square. In the Paiwan area, there are many stone houses with long slabs as roofs. Long slabs are often used to pave the interior of houses. Most of the houses of the Yamei people are built on hillside areas near the coast. To prevent storm attacks, the walls are made of thick wooden boards, the outer walls are made of pebbles, and the roofs are paved with thatch.

In addition, the Gaoshan people also have barns, livestock sheds and warehouses for storing sundries. The Amis, Paiwan and Cao people areas also have special assembly halls.

14. Marriage and Love of the Gaoshan People

The Gaoshan People practice strict monogamy and do not intermarry between close relatives. Young men and women in the Amis, Atayal and Paiwan areas have the freedom to fall in love. They usually choose partners during production and labor, and can also get the opportunity to have public love during singing and dancing activities, but they must obtain the consent of their parents to get married. In Bunun and Cao areas, the marriages of young men and women are arranged by their parents. Exchange marriages are practiced in some Saixia areas, and in some areas there are finger-tip marriages.

The age at which Gaoshan young men and women get married is not clearly defined in each region. Generally speaking, in the Atayal, Bunun and Cao areas, men marry when they are seventeen or eighteen years old, after they are familiar with farming and hunting. adult. Gaoshan women can only get married when they are fifteen or sixteen years old and are proficient in weaving techniques. The Ami people are different from other high mountain tribes. After getting married, a man must enter his wife's family and can only return to his own home after giving birth to a child.

15. Funeral of the Gaoshan people

After the Gaoshan people pass away, they have to dress the deceased in his favorite clothes. There is no coffin, but there is a fixed cemetery. The deceased were not allowed to enter the ancestral tombs, and most of them were buried on the spot. After the death of a Gaoshan person, the family members of the Gaoshan tribe have to live in mourning and mourn. The length of the mourning period varies, depending on the closeness and superiority relationship with the deceased. If one spouse dies, the other spouse must wait until the period of mourning expires before they can marry again.

16. Festivals of the Gaoshan people

The Gaoshan people have a bold personality and like to hold banquets and singing and dancing gatherings on festivals or festive days. Every festival, pigs and cows are slaughtered, and wine is prepared and feasted. The most representative food for Gaoshan people’s festival banquets is cakes and glutinous rice cakes made from various kinds of glutinous rice. Not only can it be used as a snack during festivals, but it can also be used as an offering for sacrifices. Glutinous rice is also made into rice to serve guests.

The Gaoshan people have been in the habit of holding various sacrificial activities since ancient times. Most of these sacrificial activities are closely related to production, such as: ancestral spirit sacrifices, grain god sacrifices, mountain god sacrifices, hunting god sacrifices, wedding sacrifices, etc. For harvest festivals and other large-scale ritual celebrations, the Gaoshan tribe will hold grand singing and dancing gatherings. These rituals have also become festival activities for the Gaoshan tribe.

Among the various festivals of the Gaoshan people, the "Harvest Festival" is the most grand.

The "Harvest Festival", also known as the Harvest Festival, Millet Festival or Harvest Festival, is held once a year. In addition to banquets and offerings, it is also accompanied by various cultural and sports activities. During the festival, people wear festive costumes. Women wear handbells and bracelets, hang beads on their necks, and put flowers on their heads. Men wear a string of bronze bells around their waists. The tribesmen bring their own jars of wine to the scene, and people gather around them. Bonfire, dancing, eating and drinking, celebrating the harvest of a year's labor, even all night long.

Scientific Achievements

In the long-term historical development process, the Gaoshan people have also developed science, technology and culture with unique national characteristics. However, due to long-term oppression by foreign invaders, As a result, the Gaoshan people's social development has been relatively slow and unbalanced, and they have retained the characteristics of their original culture to a large extent.

As far back as the Neolithic Age thousands of years ago, the ancestors of the Gaoshan people invented textile technology during labor practice. The Gaoshan people twist flax into thread and then weave it into cloth using simple looms. In textiles, the methods of spinning and weaving are generally the same in various places, with slightly different tools. Among the Atayal and Sesha people in the north, there is a custom that women use spinning to determine social status.

Outstanding figures

Alu (?—1874), leader of the Gaoshan ethnic group of the Langqiao Peony Society in southern Taiwan. In 1874, they fought against the US and Japanese troops and landed in Langqiao. Alu and his son and more than 30 members of their tribe died heroically.

After the signing of the Wangxia Treaty between China and the United States in 1844, the United States was eager to find a base for further aggression near mainland China. To this end, it launched an armed invasion of Taiwan, but failed due to the resistance of the Taiwanese people. In 1874, Japan, with the covert support of the United States, created an excuse to invade Taiwan. The hometown where the Alu father and son and their tribes had lived for generations also became a battlefield. In April 1874, the Japanese army invaded Langqiao and burned down the village. The Gaoshan people of Mudanshe united as one. Under the command of Alu and his son, they took advantage of the terrain and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. Using primitive weapons, they killed and injured 500 people. In the battle at Shimen Pass, the Alu father and son and more than 30 of their tribesmen died heroically and sacrificed their precious lives to fight against the invaders. The achievements and spirit of the Alu father and son in leading the Gaoshan people to fight against the Japanese invaders will always be remembered by the people who do not tolerate violence.

Mona Rodao (? - 1930), the leader of the Gaoshan people in Taiwan. During the Wushe Uprising in Taiwan in 1930, he and his two sons led the Gaoshan people to fight against the Japanese invaders. He died heroically in battle.

The Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894 ended with the Qing Dynasty's defeat, and the Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan. In June 1895, Japan sent the first "Governor-General" of Taiwan to take office, beginning the fifty-year brutal rule of Japanese imperialism in Taiwan. Mona Rodao is the leader of the Mahanbo Society of the Gaoshan tribe, and is also a very prestigious and influential tribal leader among the various tribes in the Wushe tribe. The bloody rule of the Japanese invaders in Taiwan sparked a surge of resistance among the people of all ethnic groups in Taiwan. Against this backdrop, the Wushe Uprising, which shocked the Eastern world, broke out. The uprising lasted for two months, killing and wounding more than 4,000 Japanese invaders. The Japanese army dispatched aircraft and used poison gas bombs to suppress the insurgents. In the end, more than 800 uprising fighters died heroically, including Mona Rodao and his son. He also sacrificed his precious life to fight against foreign aggression. The Gaoshan people's uprising led by Mona Rodao and his son has received the care and sympathy of the people of all ethnic groups in the motherland, as well as the sympathy and praise of people all over the world. The names of Mona Rodao and his son will go down in history together with the Wushe Uprising.