Traditionally, the

Taiwanese indigenous peoples Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...

are usually classified into two groups by their places of residence. Languages and cultures of aboriginal tribes were recorded by the government of Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa and the

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. Research on ethnic groups of

started in late 19th century, when

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

was under Japanese rule. The conducted large amount of research and further distinguished the ethnic groups of

by linguistics (see Formosan languages). After the research, the household registration records remarks of "mountains/plains indigenous peoples". The governmental statistics also listed 9 recognized subgroups under mountains indigenous peoples. However, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the government refused to recognize the plains indigenous peoples. The following is a list of classifications through Japanese and post World War II. Note that the Japanese names in parentheses does not exist in pre-World War II Japanese demographic research.

Mountains indigenous peoples

The Taiwanese government officially recognises 16 ethnic groups of mountains indigenous peoples. Kavalan and Thao are disputed to be part of mountains or plains indigenous peoples.

Plains indigenous peoples

Cultures of the plains indigenous peoples have undergone heavy Sinicization. This increases the difficulty in identifying ethnic groups.

References

臺灣原住民高山族群百年分類史系列地圖

臺灣原住民平埔族群百年分類史系列地圖

Mountains indigenous peoples

Plains indigenous peoples

References

See also