The Other Side of Taiwan.(native peoples)(Brief Article)

Returning to your roots is never easy--especially when you're on TV. So when a game-show host gives A-mei a rubber spear and asks her to perform a tribal dance, the aboriginal pop star has little choice but to comply. In her jean jacket, miniskirt and high heels, she raises her knees high in a parody of a native ritual. Then she weakly tosses the spear at the camera. It is about as close as she can come, in her hectic round of performances and promotions, to her origins in a poor tribal village on the eastern coast of Taiwan.

A-mei's star status, wealth and fast lifestyle have taken her a long way, figuratively and literally, from the island's indigenous people. "When I first became a star, I very rarely saw other aborigines," she says. "But the other day I actually saw some working with the camera equipment." That's about as far up the economic ladder as most aborigines go. Most of Taiwan's 380,000 native people (only 1.7 percent of the total population of 23 million) languish in poverty. The island's original occupants were slaughtered by Chinese settlers from Fukien province more than 300 years ago. In a brutal saga familiar to most indigenous peoples, their lands were gradually stripped away by force and fiat. They now own less than 2,400 square kilometers--less than 7 percent of the island--much of it steep mountain slopes unsuitable for farming.

The big problem is a lack of education. The Chinese school system banned native speech from its underfunded village schools; as a result, most aborigines are qualified only for menial jobs. Unemployment hovers around 30 percent, compared with 7 percent for ethnic Chinese. Alcoholism and prostitution are rampant. "There are a few aborigines, like A-mei, who have become successful," says Takisugan Bion, an aboriginal pastor. "But most of us are still an enslaved race."

Until recently, many aboriginal families sold their ...