Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond: (1 Sinophone and Taiwan Studies)

This book situates Taiwan’s indigenous knowledge in comparative contexts across other indigenous knowledge formations. The content is divided into four distinct but interrelated sections to highlight the importance and diversity of indigenous knowledge in Taiwan and beyond. It begins with an exploration of the recent development and construction of an indigenous knowledge and educational system in Taiwan, as well as issues concerning research ethics and indigenous knowledge. This is followed by a section that illustrates diverse forms of indigenous knowledge, and in turn, a theoretical dialogue between indigenous studies and settler colonial studies. Lastly, the Paiwan indigenous author Dadelavan Ibau’s trans-indigenous journey to Tibet rounds out the coverage.  This book is useful to readers in indigenous, settler colonial, and decolonial studies around the world, not just because it offers substantive content on indigenous knowledge in Taiwan, but also because it offers conceptual tools for studying indigenous knowledge from comparative and relational perspectives. It also greatly benefits anyone interested in Taiwan studies, offering an ethical approach to indigeneity in a classic settler colony. 

Table of Contents:
Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan: A Case Study of the Education Sector.- kuba-hosa-hupa: A Preliminary Study of Cou Cosmology and Pedagogy.- The Making of Indigenous Knowledge in Contemporary Taiwan: A Case Study of Three Indigenous Documentary Filmmakers.- From Collective Consent to Consultation Platform: Indigenous Research Ethics in Makotaay, Taiwan.- Indigenous Knowledge Production and Research Ethics.- Rituals as Local Knowledge: Millet and the Symbolic Subsistence of Taiwan’s Aboriginal Population.- Landscape, Habitus and Identity: A Comparative Study on the Agricultural Transition of Highland Indigenous Communities in Philippines and Taiwan.- Of Boars and Men: Indigenous Knowledge and Co-Management in Taiwan.- The Hunter’s Gift in Ecorealist Indigenous Fiction from Taiwan.- The Indigenous Land Rights Movement and Embodied Knowledge in Taiwan.- Vanishing Natives and Taiwan’s Settler-Colonial Unconsciousness.- Decolonial Theories in Comparison.- Two Historical Discourse Paradigms: Han People’s Resistance against Japan and Indigenous People’s Collaboration with Japan.- Mapping Formosa: Settler Colonial Cartography in Taiwan Cinema in the 1950s.- Being Indigenous in Taiwan and Tibet: A Writer’s Journey.

About the Author :
Shu-mei Shih is the Vice President of the American Comparative Literature Association, and, at UCLA, she is the inaugural Edward W. Said Professor of Comparative Literature, a Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, and Asian American Studies.  An elected Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, she has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the distinguished alumna award from National Taiwan Normal University. She is the creator of the emergent field of Sinophone studies, which merges settler colonial studies with the study of Sinitic-language communities and cultures inside China and around the world.  Lin-chin Tsai received his PhD at the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, with a focus on Taiwan as a settler colony and its cultural productions. His articles on Taiwan literature and cinema have been published in academic journals in English and Mandarin, as well as edited volumes, including Keywords of Taiwan Theory (2019), and Cinematic Settlers: The Settler Colonial World in Film (2020). He also co-authored a book with scholars specializing in Taiwan literature, entitled 100 Years of Taiwan Literature (2018).    

Review :
“By placing the question of Indigenous knowledge firmly within the context of debates over settler colonialism and sovereignty, the 15 essays collected in this volume make an important contribution to this struggle. … The essays in this volume offer an important reminder of what is at stake, how we got here, and the urgency of taking action.” (P. Kerim Friedman, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, Vol. 7 (1), 2024) “The culture exemplified in this book … is extraordinarily humane when compared with the commercial culture that surrounded, and still surrounds, it. … The color illustrations, of both Tibet and Taiwan, are impressive.” (Bradley Winterton, taipeitimes.com, September 14, 2023)