NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

On September 9th, the Chamorro Studies program will be hosting a meeting with representatives from the Hualien Tribal College in Eastern Taiwan. While I was in Taiwan in July I got to visit Hualien and spend some time in the Taroko Valley there. One thing I noticed about Hualien as opposed to Taipei was that there was a visible presence to the aboriginal Taiwanese there. Native figures were used in advertisements, there were signs at certain places indicating that this area was a native preserve and it was not open to the public. Aborigines in brightly colored clothes were even available for picture taking for a small fee. I don't know much about the Hualien Tribal College, but my communications with them have gone well and others have told me that they are doing good work in Taiwan. I am excited for the presentation tomorrow. If anyone reading this is available it will take place at UOG, in the HSS Building, Room 304 at 2 pm. My excitement doesn't only extend to the pres

When I teach modern World History, the island of Taiwan makes a couple of cameo appearances. It appears during the resolution of the Chinese Civil War. Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) flees to Formosa vowing to keep the fight alive from his new island fortress. In the way that I teach the class CKS is not a very sympathetic character. Coming from a Western perspective he is supposed to be the one that we choose as our champion, the one “our” side made deals with as being either the better or two evils or the lesser of two evils. CKS is no saint and is hardly worth much historical sympathy in my opinion and the conduct from the initial purge of communists, to his retreat to Taiwan to the white terror all attest to this. I don’t shy away from discussing the atrocities of the communists and Mao, but I don’t deny the historical significance and revolutionary nature of some of the communist reforms. As coming from a colony of the “west” I don’t like to take on their heroes