臺灣文學虛擬博物館

A New Chapter of Understanding Indigenous Peoples

Taiwanese indigenous peoples speak Austronesian languages, which are spoken by almost 400 million speakers in the world. The Austronesian population covers a wide geographical area stretching east to Easter Island, west to Madagascar, south to New Zealand, north to Taiwan. In addition to the biogeographic evidence found in recent years, the archaic features of Austronesian languages kept in Taiwan and the great linguistic diversity have led to the theory that Austronesian peoples originated from Taiwan—"Out of Taiwan Hypothesis"; Taiwan was very likely the origin point of Austronesian cultures.

We invite you to join us in knowing Taiwan's indigenous peoples through literary readings. We would like you to further understand different cultural ideas and values and to realize the meaning of respecting diversity so that together we can protect the precious cultural assets that Taiwan has to offer to the world.