Central Taiwan Discourse: Disputed Native History Claims by PRC
In the heart of Fujian, China, a museum dedicated to Austronesian cultures has stirred up a storm of debate. The institution, responsible for the excavation of the Keqiutou site on Pingtan Island, is the Fujian Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
The Keqiutou site, one of the earliest Neolithic shell midden sites discovered along the coastal areas of Fujian, is the museum's centrepiece. Officials claim that the site provides concrete evidence of the shared roots between Fujian and Taiwan. However, scholars have yet to identify any ancestral culture for Taiwan's Austronesian peoples in China, and the relationship between the Pingtan site and Taiwan's Austronesian peoples remains a matter of conjecture.
DNA studies suggest that some indigenous Taiwan groups may have back-migrated from the Philippines, casting doubt on the museum's assertions. Roger Blench, an anthropologist, has argued extensively that the Austronesians in Taiwan are a mixed group, the result of multiple migrations from along the coast of the Asian mainland.
The museum's intentions are not entirely clear. Some suggest it is a move to promote the PRC's propaganda line that Taiwanese and Chinese are one "family." Last year, the museum's opening was accompanied by a blizzard of articles and commentaries in the media, further fuelling speculation.
The PRC's ambitions in the Pacific are also a cause for concern. With Pingtan Island having a key link to Taiwan due to the PRC's pilot zone with tax and investment breaks, intended to attract technology and skilled workers from Taiwan, some fear that the PRC plans to use its faux Austronesian connection to further its ambitious goals of dominating the Pacific.
Tsang Cheng-hwa, director of the Institute of Anthropology at Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, has commented that the local government can leverage this platform to promote further scholarly exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. However, the claim about Taiwan's return to China at the end of World War II, repeated in some media outlets, is false, as Taiwan was never returned to China.
In a piece for The Diplomat, Zheng Wang, a Global Fellow at the Kissinger Institute on China, claimed that the Taiwan's return to China at the end of World War II is a historical milestone omitted in official commemorations. This claim, like the museum's, is a subject of ongoing debate and research.
As the debate continues, one thing is clear: the Keqiutou site and the museum dedicated to Austronesian cultures in Fujian are significant in their own right, and their interpretation and significance will continue to be a topic of interest for scholars and the general public alike.
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