“Herbal City: Beitou·Pingpu Tribe” Lecture Series Second Session: Family Story
Through the sharing of Peng Ling and Pan Yanting, who are of Beitou Society origin, this session reveals the process of their discovery of their identity as members of the Pingpu ethnic group, through the cultural and historical evidence such as genealogy, marriage contracts, and even the scientific identification process of genetic testing. By talking about their life experiences and family stories, the audience can think about the aborigines’ view of history from the local perspective, as well as the common blood left in you and me.
Lecture text summary
Host/Planner | Introduction by Xu Wenrui (excerpt)
“As everyone born on this island and in this historical space, when we ask about our own ancestry and background, what can we ask about?”
The “Herbal City: Beitou Pingpu Tribe” project originated from an urban renewal project – the reconstruction of the Beitou No. 3 Cemetery area into No. 22 Park (now named Beitou San Deqi Park). The park area was originally a very important traditional territory for the Ketagalan people in the northern region. It is hoped that through the historical transformation of the park reconstruction, it will be possible to rediscover the possibility of writing the cultural background from the historical perspective of the Ketagalan people. While constructing the park, it also gave the local Pingpu people an opportunity to speak clearly.
Therefore, the purpose of this project is not to provide an activity about renaming the park, but to make more people think: as everyone born on this island and in this historical space, when we go When we ask about our ancestry and background, what exactly are we asking about? In other words, what can I ask? In particular, many historical memories and life contexts have been buried one by one in our history of colonization and rule. Is there any way for us today, is there any way to rediscover and unearth these things? As the second session of the forum, today’s lecture is centered on this. Teacher Peng Ling and classmate Pan Yanting, descendants of the Pingpu ethnic group in the Beitou area, were invited to share with us the process of tracing their origins.
Speaker｜Peng Ling (excerpt)
Thank you, Director Su and Teacher Xu of Fengjia Art Museum, for organizing this series of activities and giving us the opportunity to share our stories with you here.
This is my mother, and all stories begin with this beauty. My mother’s natal family is in Beitou, her surname is Chen, and the Chen family in Beitou can be said to be a wealthy family in the area. We used to joke that when we stood at the Beitou Railway Station (the old Beitou Station, now the New Beitou MRT Station), all the land we could see belonged to our Chen family, but there were tens of millions of descendants, and each of us could only get a few hundred dollars. piece. This is my uncle in the photo. He has been often told that he looks different since he was a child. He is the best at telling stories. Every time during the Chinese New Year, he always says that his grandma (that is, my Azu) lives in In Xiaopingding, my grandma’s brothers all look like me, so everyone calls them “Mountain Peak People.” When I grew up, I was studying history, and during a chat with my teacher, I became interested in tracing my ancestry. So I went to check the household registration information from the Japanese era, starting from my Azu (grandfather’s mother): Miss Su. She is from Xiaopingding, Azu’s mother is Zheng Zu, and her hometown is Shuimantou, Tamsui, so I transferred from the Beitou Household Registration Office to the Tamsui Household Registration Office to continue my investigation. But when fresh water was found, the clues were lost. So the investigation turned to my grandma. Her son looked like Fan, so maybe she also had Aboriginal ancestry.
My grandma’s natal family was in Tayo (now Songshan area), so I went to the Songshan Household Registration Office to check the information and began to research my grandma’s life experience. It turns out that my grandmother was an adopted daughter. She had several surnames. Her original surname was Zeng and her adoptive parents changed her surname to Ye. Her biological mother’s surname is Min, and her parents originally lived in Xia Tayou. The surname Min increases the possibility that my grandmother has aboriginal ancestry (because when aborigines register information, many people will use the surname Min as the surname of their Chinese names. In addition, the surname Pan, because it sounds similar to the Chinese character Fan, is also often used. (Chinese surname registered as an aborigine), traced back to my grandmother’s mother. Although the Min Shi Ting’s household registration information was marked as “福” (a native place of southern Fujian), her parents were both registered as familiar, so it was determined The Aboriginal blood in my blood. Min’s mother is Pan Shu, Pan Shu’s father is Pan Zhengfang, and her mother is Ding Mi. I have never heard of these names in my memory.
By chance, I entered the names of my family ancestors into the Google search bar. During Pan Zhengfang’s search, I actually found a marriage contract. The marriage contract is stored in the National Taiwan University Museum of Anthropology. The museum told me that this is the last marriage contract handed down by the Pingpu people in the north. The woman’s name in the marriage contract is different from our grandma Pan Shuliang, she is called “Pan Shuliang”. But her groom, parents, age, including the time when the engagement was made, are all the same as Pan Shu. At that time, many official documents of the Han people would add the word “niang” to the end of a girl’s name. “Niang” has a similar sound to “liang”. When registering, the aborigines also followed the Han custom and added the word “liang” to the end of a woman’s name. The recurring “application” (p.s. commonly used today) in the marriage contract also shows the parents’ nervousness about the marriage of their only daughter, and also brings out a mobile geographical relationship. The marriage contract states that after marriage, the newlyweds can “move to another place”, that is, use a boat to carry their daughter to a different place to live and farm. According to the household registration information, they migrated on the Keelung River.
Another relevant information is the lottery in 1881, the seventh year of Guangxu. The lot book is the contract for family separation. This lot book is the family separation letter for brothers Pan Wangzhen and Pan Zhengfang. Coupled with the family-related documents found in the book “Kedagalan Ancient Documents”, I was able to sort out my family tree. It turned out that Pan Zhengfang’s grandfather “Pan Dechun” was the Tumu of Tatayo Society, and his grandson Pan Zhengfang was also the Tumu. Pan Zhengfang also appears in Inengjiaju’s written records. I further conducted field research and found Pan Tianci, a descendant of the Tumu family in Tatayoushe. Pan Tianci’s grandfather told me that their ancestor’s surname was Min, and his name was Min Shu. He was from the Li tribe. After some research, it turned out that we are indeed related. My grandmother’s biological mother’s surname was Min, and Min’s mother was Pan Shu. Pan Shu married “Min Dehe”, and Min Dehe and Min Shu were siblings. This pair of sisters and brothers from the Li ethnic group both married into the aboriginal tribe of Tata Youshe. In addition to the bloodline of Tata Youshe, I also found a blood relationship with the Li ethnic group.
If I can pursue it this way, actually everyone here can. I began to look for and search the lifestyle of my ancestors. Through various documents and historical archives, I slowly painted a picture of what my ancestors’ lives were like. It turns out that the current Songshan Airport is the ancestral home of my ancestors and is inseparable from our tribal history. In addition, I also tried to find the blood distribution of our family, so I sampled the DNA of my mother and my aunt, trying to test it in a scientific way. It was discovered that both the mother and the great aunt were of Polynesian ancestry (indigenous people). Due to the lack of genetic types in the database, no more detailed information could be obtained. But I hope my experience can inspire others so that everyone can find their own blood relationship.
Respondent｜Pan Yanting
Compared with Teacher Peng’s pragmatic spirit, my approach is actually more passive. I use a method of listening to stories and looking for stories to find my ancestry. Because I grew up in Beitou, I have a deep understanding of the changes in the area, but I never thought that I might be an aborigine. I never knew that I was a familiar person, but I often joked that my family lives in Beitou and my surname is Pan, so my family must be from the Pingpu ethnic group. But slowly I began to think about my growing environment, family relationships, and my grandma’s story, and I discovered that I actually have a deep relationship with Ketagalan. I have always lived in this field, but I didn’t explore it. This relationship has been ignored. Coming to Ketagalan Hall to serve as a substitute opened up my interest and possibilities in “finding my roots.”
One time when our family was worshiping our ancestors, my uncle suddenly said to me: “Hey, look! This is the household registration information that I went to the household registration office to get. Our family is Fanzai.” Only then did I realize that I really have Aboriginal ancestry. Coupled with my work experience at Ketagalan Hall, I met many local teachers one after another, which opened up my imagination of my own story. I am an aborigine from Galabieshe (now the Fuxinggang area in Beitou). From the time I was born to the time when buildings were demolished and built in my hometown, these are my life experiences in Beitou. I began to explore many relics and buildings related to the Pingpu people, and then I found Fanzicuo (Baode Palace). I discovered that my grandpa’s name, Pan Muzhi, was carved on the legs of the sacred table in Baode Palace. I accidentally found my father. relatives. Through the connection of various clues, I began to have a way to tell and share my story with others. At the same time, I also heard the stories of more people, including Teacher Peng Ling who is here today, Ms. Pan Fenying, the widow of the late Mr. Pan Huiyao, the elder of the Beitou Society, Brother Weng Yihui, a descendant of the Mao Shaoweng Society, and the elder brother of the Tata You Society. Brother Pan Duqing. These people all deal with their own stories and relationships with the Ketagalan people in different ways. As a young man who loves the land of Beitou, I have been thinking about what can I do for Beitou and the Ketagalan people with my identity? How do I tell my story? I’m still thinking about it and still trying.
QA time
Audience: How many resources does Taiwan have now to trace the genes of its ancestors? Bloodline?
Answer: At present, Dr. Lin Mali is indeed the first to start ancestry testing for the Pingpu ethnic group. Teacher Duan of the Siraya ethnic group and the Academia Sinica also have relevant genetic databases. At present, the information in foreign genetic databases is definitely not enough. If we want to produce the results of Taiwan’s own population gene database, we may have to go back to Taiwan to collect more detailed bloodline information. Mackay Hospital has a related blood transfusion medicine center, you can call to inquire.
Audience: Are there any archives of the songs sung by Ms. Pan Fenying in the film? Does each Aboriginal community have a different language?
Answer: There are recording files of Teacher Pan’s chants and songs, which you can find. Although the languages of each community are different, the languages of many communities are similar in terms of root words or partial phonetic words. Not only language, many societies have the same origin and are combined with each other in terms of customs, customs, trade and marriage relationships, but there are still some differences.
Audience: Judging from the current data, are these communities and ethnic groups indistinguishable by language and customs?
Answer: We have been living together with the Han people for a long time, and the ethnic groups have been integrated into our larger society. I can tell you what society I belong to because I have an ancestral genealogy, but this is only a connection of blood, and it is difficult to distinguish by society now.
Han-Chinese intermarriage and population movement actually make it a little more difficult for us to trace our own life experience. However, there are still some materials, oral histories of elders, and archives that have yet to be compiled, which can allow us to have a deeper study and understanding of this. I hope these files and information can be sorted out so that we can have more things to ask and find. In fact, today’s lecture is just a seed. If you are interested in your family and life experience, you can check it out. You can even ask the elders at home and you can find out some things. Our ancestors are diverse, and today’s resources are convenient and abundant. I hope everyone can successfully find out their family’s story.