Lai’s Pacific Trip Highlights Region’s Shared Cultural Roots
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te embarked on his term’s first overseas trip to the Pacific, making stops in Hawaii and Guam. Indigenous Peoples Council Minister Ljaucu Zingrur joined his delegation as a show of Taiwan’s commitment to its Indigenous population’s shared cultural roots with Pacific Islanders. On this episode of Zoom In Zoom Out, TaiwanPlus reporter Rik Glauert sits down with Wagi Payan, an Indigenous studies professor at Taiwan’s National Dong Hwa University. Wagi Payan is also a supervisor of the Taiwan Indigenous Austronesian Economic, Cultural, and Educational Care Association. We first zoom in on how Lai’s trip demonstrates a value-based diplomacy, then zoom out to understand what an Austronesian identity really means for Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples.
