Sun Ta-chuan, director of the Graduate Institute of Development for Indigenous Peoples at Dong Hua University, has been involved in the movement for the revival of Aboriginal culture over more than a decade. Among other contributions, he founded <i>Shanhai Culture Bimonthly</i> as a voice for autonomous Aboriginal writing. (Jimmy Lin)

Looking back at Taiwan over the centuries, there have been many changes of regime and countless periods of unrest. How did the Taiwanese get through the 20th century with all its dramatic transformations? What have they been able to claim as their own? What have they retained? What did they miss out on and what have they lost?

In January of 2003, Hong's Foundation for Education and Culture and Yuan Liou Publishing sponsored a series of four lectures entitled "Getting to Know Taiwan History." Beginning with this issue, Sinorama will carry all four lectures, one per month. These lectures offer in-depth understanding in an accessible way, and through them, readers will get a picture of the development of many aspects of Taiwan, including literature, the economy, society, and the Aboriginal peoples. In a nutshell, they offer the highlights and complexities of the overall experience of Taiwan.

Concern comes from knowledge and understanding. Bentuhua-a term that means putting Taiwan and Taiwanese at the center (of politics, culture, and public attention)-should not just be a slogan or label. Only with fundamental and in-depth construction of an understanding of Taiwan's overall history, through collective memories and sentiments, can we enjoy a more inclusive perspective on our land and its people, and seek a better future for our selves, our children, and our grandchildren.

As the first article in the series, we present a lecture by Sun Ta-chuan entitled "Indigenous Voices: The Cry of Taiwan's Aboriginal Peoples." Dr. Sun is director of the Graduate Institute of Development for Indigenous Peoples and chairman of the Department of Language and Communication of Indigenous Peoples at National Dong Hwa University.

It has only been very recently that Aboriginal peoples have been brought into thinking about Taiwan's history. Before the 1970s, all discourse about Taiwan's history was within the framework of the history of China. While this is not wrong in itself, it leaves out countless elements in the rich tapestry of the development of Taiwan over the last three or four centuries. There was only a change in the direction of historical research with the expulsion of the ROC from the United Nations and the beginning of political and social transformation in the 1970s.

Following expulsion from the UN, the legitimacy of the government of the "Republic of China" came under challenge both from within and without. Internally, ROC legitimacy rested on the five-power constitution, with elected representatives from the various provinces of China. But once the government had retreated to Taiwan in 1949, it became impossible for any of the provinces in mainland China to elect new popular representatives. Under the circumstances, how could the government continue to claim legitimacy? With the aging of ROC representatives in Taiwan plus the expulsion from the UN, the problem became acute, raising serious anxiety about legitimacy, anxiety that persisted right up to the lifting of martial law in 1987.

There was also the problem of international legitimacy. After expulsion from the UN, the government could no longer represent "China," and its overseas agencies could not use the term "Republic of China" in their names. So under what name would they participate in international activities? Such questions challenged the external legitimacy of the ROC. It was only with these internal and external shocks that thinking about history in Taiwan began to undergo structural transformation.