[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“jesus80”][quote=“hansioux”]
That’s not a Japanese soldier by the way. It’s one of those Aiyung, private aboriginal containment militias. The taker of the picture wasn’t sure of the person was an ethic Han or Sinitized Pingpu Aboriginal.[/quote]
What is an Aiyung soldier? I couldn’t find anything in google…[/quote]
Aiyung (隘勇, Barrier Volunteers)
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9A%98%E5%8B%87
Only has the entry in Chinese. After Qing’s acquisition of west coast Taiwan, the Qing government drew a line, the thóo-gû-kau (土牛溝, Dirt bull ditch), between the Qing territory and the Aboriginal territory. It’s prevents ethnic Han from grabbing and developing Aboriginal owned lands, and at the same time tried to keep the Aboriginals confined and minimize attacks.
Red line depicts thóo-gû-kau of that certain period
However, the divide didn’t really function all that well. Han merchant groups continue to grab lands from the Aboriginals in order to gain access to valuable resources such as deer skin, farm land and camphor. As they do this, the wronged Aboriginal would head hunt according to their tradition. So Han merchant groups would hire militias to secure their interests, and these militias were referred to as Aiyungs.
A famous merchant group is called Jin-Guang-Fu (金廣福), which is a joint Hakka and Holo effort, to develop Saisiyat territory Rakkus, present day Beipu (北埔). It’s a popular tourist spot in Beipu today.
There are many location around Taiwan named after the thóo-gû-kau or Aiyung bases. New Taipei’s Tucheng district (土城) for example, is so named because it was once the line that divides Han and Aboriginals. There are many places named Ai-liao (隘寮) or Ai-men (隘門) around Taiwan, that were militia posts. The Japanese continued the Ai-yung practise for a while until they replaced all militia with regular Japanese police.
By the way, Beipu’s original name, Rakkus, means Camphor trees in Saisiyat. The name Aiyung derived from the first Sinitized name for Beipu, Da-ai Bei-pu (大隘北埔), where Da-ai seems to be the phonetic translation for the Saisiyat legend, Ta’ay, the magical little black people.[/quote]
Fascinating stuff, keep it coming, professor!