Indigenous council abandons China event

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples decided to abandon plans to attend a fair in the Chinese city of Hangzhou after organizers wanted to replace the term “indigenous peoples” with “minorities,” reports said Wednesday.

A group of ten indigenous business people from the creative sector were to have joined the delegation Wednesday to attend the 10th edition of a cultural creativity fair in Hangzhou until October 24.

However, on October 14, they received news from a Taiwanese business association that the fair organizers were demanding that all inscriptions, posters and documents during the event use the Mandarin Chinese term for “minorities” instead of “indigenous peoples.”

The Council said it had continued indirect contacts with the fair organizers to discuss the name, but the latter had insisted that in China, the name “minorities” should be used, and that the term “indigenous peoples” should not be read anywhere during the event.    [FULL  STORY]