One Week with Carlo Ginzburg

（以下是我聽義大利史學家Carlo Ginzburg到台灣中央研究院及台大歷史研究所演講的感想。）

The 2015 Fu Ssu-Nien Lectures （傅斯年講座） was awarded to Carlo Ginzburg, an Italian historian and a practitioner of microhistory. 

This was his first trip to Taiwan. He stayed for ten days, gave two lectures, joined one symposium and agreed to a conversation with students and faculty from the History Department of National Taiwan University (NTU). Before taking the flight back to Europe, he visited Hualien.

Like a fan, I followed all of Ginzburg's talks in Taipei, at the same time feeding my hunger for knowledge by watching all his talks on youtube. Chances came that I was able to ask him several questions at the conversation about colonial archives and philology, and they not only earned me a pleasant dinner with him and several faculty members from NTU and Academia Sinica on the last day, but also put me into contact with fellow historians that take interest in my research.

How fortunate and grateful! Yes, I take it as a call from History.

Lessons from the National indigenous Languages Survey's Reports in Australia

This brief comparison between the national indigenous languages survey reports of Taiwan (made in 2012 & 2014) and the survey reports of Australia (made in 2005 & 2014) came out in Aboriginal Educational World 《原住民教育情報誌》No. 63 (June, 2015). pp. 58-61.

My article argues that for a language survey report to be really useful, it should contain a detailed analysis of the language's current status based on both quantitative and qualitative survey results; it should generate localized endangerment and vitality factors from the detailed analysis; and it should also propose ways to redress that correspond to each distinct language endangerment case. There is definitely not one miracle pill for all types of loss.

To present survey results alone with numerous tables and statistic formulas is not helpful. Numbers are important, but it is the story of those numbers that truly enlightens.

Celebrate 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' in ILRDC Way

August 1st is Indigenous Peoples' Day in Taiwan.

It celebrates the island's indigenous cultures and remembers how indigenous rights came to be recognized by Taiwan's constitution since the Indigenous Rights Movement in mid-1980s.

1984 - Taiwan's indigenous peoples asked the government to call them by 'indigenous people' （yuan-zhu-min, 原住民 ）instead of the stigmatizing 'mountain tribe' or mountain fellow'（shan-bao, 山胞 ）.

1994 August 1- 'Indigenous People' made it into the constitution of Taiwan and replaced 'mountain tribe'.

1997- 'Indigenous People' became 'Indigenous Peoples', signifying the recognition of each indigenous group as a collective entity.

From 'raw savage', 'cooked savage' to 'mountain tribe' to 'indigenous people', this process marks our continuous fight against the naming power of colonizers. Nothing is by no means granted here.

For ILRDC, a center built to revitalize endangered indigenous languages, how else can we feel the meaning of the day other than speak our own languages and tell people not only do we have our own names, but we also have our own ways of saying them? We have our own languages; they too deserve to be recognized and used more in fact.

With that spirit, ILRDC launched 'Challenge Our Mother Tongues in Ten Seconds'（挑戰十秒說族語）, inviting people to film themselves speaking their own languages in ten seconds. By the end of 31st July, the center has 38 films from 19 language variations. Here they are.

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day.

May indigenous languages continue to strive and stay alive.

kai na kacalysiyan: Report on the Current Situation of Indigenous Languages in Taiwan

Presented at Satellite Event of 13 International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (July 23, 2015, Academia SINICA, Taipei Taiwan).

I prepared the talk in English (with a brief introduction in my mother tongue Paiwan) for my target audience - Austronesian linguists from all over the world - and I intended to take them on a time journey from the 17th century onward, so they may see the language shift on the island.

Generally speaking, indigenous languages in Taiwan are now in the hospital. Policies, including those supporting ILRDC, are the medicines. Treatments have so far been given for two decades.

After the report, Ethnologue showed excitement that it has found a new source of information with which they could revise their website, and they would be happy to keep in contact. Personally, I also think it is time to reevaluate the vitality of Taiwan's indigenous languages. UNESCO Interactive Atlas isn't really accurate in the case of Taiwan; Global Language Hotspots can also use some new data.

But such revision isn't an ode to the success of previous revitalization efforts. Though encouragement intended, the purpose here is, instead, rather to know where kai na kacalysiyan (indigenous peoples' language) truly are, so as to come up with really good plans, feasible and effective, that will keep the languages alive.

Inner Mongolia（內蒙古）

(The following is about my trip to China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in July 2015).

結束了「2015年台灣原住民族與大陸少數民族發展研討會」，去了俗稱「酒吧一條街」的北京后海喝小酒唱山歌，到了天安門廣場和故宮參觀幾小時，也親眼瞧過「鳥巢」、「水立方」，之後就準備前往此行真正的目的地：內蒙古自治區。

內蒙古面積118萬平方公里，人口2,400餘萬，將近四十個台灣大，人口卻只多一點。這趟旅程只鎖定第三大都市赤峰市以及赤峰市下的三個旗及兩個區：翁牛特旗、巴林右旗、克什克騰旗（蒙族詩人席慕蓉的家鄉）、紅山區及松山區。

以上這些地方加起來還是三個台灣大，將近9萬平方公里，因此在名副其實的「大陸」該趕的路，一點也沒有少掉。

2015 Conference on the Development of Taiwan Aborigines and China's Ethnic Minorities

Presented at 2015 Conference on the Development of Taiwan Aborigines and China's Ethnic Minorities (July 4, 2015). My role was the commentator for the third session of the Forum. 

I used two concepts, 'co-management' and 'empowerment', to respond to the presentations on language revitalization and the design of ecological compensation standard and cultural-touristic zone. Whether it comes to developing indigenous languages, tourism, land or civil rights, it is my belief that indigenous peoples and minorities should have a say and a role in any decision-making process. There is no development if the people's very own voice is not heard. ILRDC, which works so closely with indigenous language teachers and villagers via a number of channels, is working towards the goals of comanagement and empowerment.  

2014 Taiwan Indigenous Language International Conference

Published in Aboriginal Educational World No. 61 (February 2015): 94-95. 

原住民族語言研究發展中心 生日快樂！

(Here I share the One-Year Anniversary Film of ILRDC. )

原住民族語言研究發展中心成立到今天（2015年6月17日）剛滿一年，製作了周年影片，訴說一些從2014年跨到2015年的故事，沒說的也還很多，片長卻已經逼近九分鐘。

語發中心目前還是計劃預算支持，沒有組織法，人事會計由承標單位管理，不算是獨立的中心。還好，今年承標的台北市立大學充分授權中心人員執行年度計畫及活動，我們才有機會學習中心獨立的樣子，邊做邊建立一些中心體制。

對我而言，今年雖然還有一半，產生年度成果的一半，我也因此延緩回到歷史研究獨行遠行的行列，但是我已經感受到這段經歷將是我人生中很重要的一環。我在這裡看見屬於台灣原住民的希望，能為這個希望付出是我的祝福與榮幸。同時，我也在這裡逐漸確認屬於自己的未來，過程不總是愉快，但能因此確認自己的方向，也是值得感恩的地方。

於公於私，我都祝福語發中心，生日快樂！Happy One-Year Old, ILRDC. 

A Study of TSM Loanwords in Sixteen Indigenous Languages in Taiwan

Presented at The 7th International Conference on Taiwanese Romanization (May 22 2015) at National Cheng Kung University.

That experience was itself quite interesting; Mandarin was nowhere allowed in the conference. Everyone else was speaking TSM, reminding each other of the evil of a state-imposed national language, while I (probably the only indigenous speaker) presented in English and conversed in TSM, which seems to be surprisingly sufficient. TSM has the largest speaker-population in Taiwan but Mandarin became the national language in the 1950s.

To be frank, indigenous peoples and Holo-lang (or Hoklo Taiwanese that speak TSM) aren't always at peace. The studies I read as well as the fieldwork I did also tell me despite of their increase, TSM loanwords are the least popular with indigenous peoples, in comparison, who also tend to deny their existence. This certainly is a point to elaborate for the publication of the same topic. Maybe in September.

I Baw (Paiwan)

（排灣族女作家伊苞和她的《老鷹再見》）

miperepereper i     kalevelevan  aza  aris
   soaring          in         sky          the  eagle
   (Verb           +        Place       +   Subject)

Translation: The eagle is soaring in the sky.

This syntax is typical for Austronesian languages such as Paiwan. Verbs are essential and always in the first place, whose meanings are determined by the focus system.

In this sentence, the unconjugated verb is 'perepere' or 'perper' (to fly) in Raleigh Ferrell's 1982 Paiwan Dictionary.  'mi' is an agent marker that attributes the movement to the subject (the eagle); therefore, 'mi-perepere' or 'mi-perper' means fly or flies. and to duplicate the verb stem by a single syllable (perepere becomes 'perepereper') makes the verb a present participle or V-ing; so, 'mi-perepere-per' means flying.

That is probably the farthermost into linguistics I can go about my mother language at the moment. Thanks to my days spent at the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center.

But the book is actually not about Paiwan language. It is about a Paiwan woman's journey to West Tibet that seems to bring her so far away from home, yet in fact even closer to where she originally came from. It is, as I like to see myself as well, returning by leaving, settling while moving.