Life

Book on historic Taiwan trail wins national prize

“A Story of the Nengao National Trail,” by veteran hikers and researchers Yang Nan-jun and Hsu Ju-lin, provides a detailed background to the 1930 Wushe Incident and development of Taiwan’s central mountain region. (Courtesy of Forestry Bureau)

• Publication Date：08/16/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

A book on a historic mountain trail crossing central Taiwan has won top prize in the National Publication Awards, which recognize government agency-released publications, the ROC Ministry of Culture said Aug. 15.

“A Story of the Nengao National Trail,” written by husband-and-wife team Yang Nan-jun and Hsu Ju-lin and released by the Forestry Bureau under the Council of Agriculture, examines the natural environment, history and cultural significance of the track, which connects Wushe Village in Nantou County’s Renai Township and Xiulin Township in Hualien County.

The book traces how the Japanese colonial government built the route from hunting and trading trails used by aboriginal groups as a means of controlling the tribes and extracting resources such as timber and camphor, eventually leading to the famous revolt of the Seediq people in 1930, the Wushe Incident.

“The authors draw on their five decades of field studies and hiking experience, supported by interviews and document research, to reveal the true story of the Wushe Incident, while also providing detailed accounts of forestry maintenance and the construction of electricity infrastructure along the route,” the MOC said.

Yang and Hsu, both dedicated hikers, developed interest in the trail and its history long before the local box-office hit “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” rekindled interest in the Seediq uprising, they said.

Yang, now 81, scaled Taiwan’s 100 highest peaks in the 1970s and helped discover several unknown aboriginal migration routes. The author of dozens of books combining accounts of his expeditions with histories of indigenous groups, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by National Dong Hwa University’s College of Indigenous Studies in 2010.

His most recent publication is an annotated translation of “The Formosan Native Tribes: A Genealogical and Classificatory Study,” which was compiled by Japanese scholars between 1928 and 1933. (THN)