In a First, Atayal Man Uses Only Indigenous Name on Official ID
After a landmark court ruling, an Indigenous Atayal man becomes the first Taiwanese person to use just their romanized Indigenous name on a national ID card.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you.
00:01 A new national ID card for Valdo Baiyan
00:04 of Taiwan's Daiyan Indigenous group.
00:07 He's the first person in the country
00:08 to be allowed to use just his indigenous name
00:11 written in the Roman alphabet on this document.
00:13 I'm so touched.
00:15 I'm so happy.
00:22 This is the real name of an aboriginal.
00:25 This is the real name of an aboriginal.
00:27 I can look up to the sky and talk to my ancestors.
00:31 It's a major step forward for Taiwan's 600,000 indigenous people,
00:35 who for decades were forced to use Mandarin
00:37 and restricted from expressing their cultures,
00:39 leaving them feeling like second-class citizens.
00:42 But laws have changed since Taiwan became a fully-fledged democracy.
00:46 Indigenous people's rights to speak their languages
00:49 and express their culture are now protected.
00:51 These rights don't always translate into everyday life,
00:54 and indigenous people are still facing an uphill battle for equality.
00:59 Valdo had to sue the government to use his indigenous name,
01:02 without also including a Chinese translation.
01:05 The court agreed that this policy infringed on his rights
01:07 and dignity as an indigenous person.
01:10 We have a procedure to restore our traditional names
01:13 after the struggle of our ancestors.
01:17 But it's strange that they have a procedure
01:19 where we have to use Chinese to translate our names.
01:26 My name is Sabuang.
01:27 There are many ways to pronounce my name
01:31 that are not in Chinese.
01:35 So when I translate it into Chinese,
01:37 people will read it wrong.
01:39 Indigenous people trace their ancestry in Taiwan
01:41 back thousands of years,
01:43 long before the now-majority Han Chinese migrated to the country.
01:48 The Dayan language, like all of Taiwan's indigenous languages,
01:51 has no relation to the Mandarin Chinese spoken across the island
01:54 and is written using Roman letters.
01:56 To prevent our future generations
01:59 from having a concept of culture being replaced,
02:03 I have to take action
02:05 to make sure that the government
02:09 remembers our identity
02:12 in the Roman pinyin we used to speak.
02:17 Faudo's court win only applies to him.
02:19 It won't set a legal precedent.
02:22 Other indigenous activists are already filing similar petitions
02:26 in the hopes of being recognised in the same way,
02:28 putting pressure on the government to change its laws.
02:33 Chris Ma and Rick Lowatt for Taiwan Plus.
02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]