Marriage and Life of Han Taiwanese and Plains Aborigines

Dr. Hung Li-wan, an expert in ethno-history of Qing-period Taiwan, gave a two-hour talk on the topic of marriage and daily life of Han Taiwanese and Plains Aborigines women from the late Qing to the Japanese period. As part of Academia Sinica's celebration of the 100th birthday of Republic of China, the presentation was an effort by the Institute of Taiwan History to explain sources/archives that the Institute holds, while making history interesting and relevant to people's lives today.

Dr. Hung examined the gap between laws/policies and practice. She also compared marriage practices between patrilineal Han society (漢人社會) and matrilineal Plains Aborigines society (平埔社會). One theme was that Han girls and women from the Qing to the Chinese Republican period were properties sold, resold, and bought because of widespread patrilineal ideas and poverty of immigrants. The other theme was Aborigines-Han cultural exchange. Dr. Hung provided examines of marriage and religious practices of one group influencing the other. She explained that as the majority, Han influence was stronger than Aborigines influence. Many of these "old" marriage practices still exist today.

Dr. Hung relied exclusively on contracts (文古書, 契約書) made for purchase of land and people, and money loaning. People often used red papers/cloths to make these contracts to symbolize the "happiness" that these contracts produced for the sellers, and not the "goods" that were sold.

The director of Institute of Taiwan History gave a linguistic example that reveals the multicultural characteristic of Taiwan:
Taiwanese Hoklo (福佬 vs. Hakka 客家) women refer to their husbands as "thau-ke" 頭家, which means "head of the household" while Taiwanese Hoklo men refer to their wives as "khan-chhiu" 牽手, which means "one who I hold hands with." The "thau-ke" term reflects the Han patrilineal influence of giving all authority and power to the men, while the "khan-chhiu" term reflects the practice by aborigines people who "show" the relationship of a married coupe by having the couple holding hands in public.