In 1895, China cedes Taiwan to Japan via the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan ends with Japan defeating Han Chinese resistance. Japanese military officials see the natives as an obstacle to the resources of Taiwan. Later a team of Japanese soldiers are attacked by natives. The attack leads to a battle between Japanese and natives including Mona Rudao on a cliff trail. On his way to trade with Han Chinese off the mountain, Mona Rudao also feuds with Temu Walis, a Seediq young man from Toda group. The Japanese ban people from trading with Mona Rudao, and collaborate with a group of Bunun to get Mona Rudao's men drunk and ambush them when they are asleep. After some battles (the 1902 and 1903 ), Rudao Luhe, Mona Rudao's father, is injured. Their village, Mahebu, and neighboring villages are under the control of the Japanese....Read more:Warriors of the Rainbow Seediq Bale
Twenty years pass. Mahebu and other villages are forced to abolish the custom of keeping the heads they have hunted. Men are subject to low-wage logging and kept from holding guns and from traditional animal and human hunting. Women work in houses of the Japanese and give up the traditional weaving work. Children including the boy Pawan Nawi attend school in Wushe village. Men buy alcohol and medicine from a grocery, where the Han Chinese owner lets them buy things on account. Above all, they are forbidden to tattoo their faces. The tattoo is believed to be the requirement for Seediq people to "go to the other side across the Rainbow Bridge" after death. There are also young people such as Dakis Nomin, Dakis Nawi, Obing Nawi and Obing Tadao, who adopt Japanese names, education and life style and attempt to work and live among Japanese. The Japanese, except a few, are not aware of the tension...Read more:Warriors of the Rainbow Seediq Bale
