Les jeux sportifs des Austronésiens formosans

Abstract

Sports were introduced in Taiwan in the early twentieth century by the Japanese colonizers who administered the country between 1895 and 1945. First for their only distraction, the occupants then shared sports with the local population from the end of the years 1910, particularly with the aim of making it an integration channel in the new state system, and more particularly with the Austronesian populations of the island living in remote mountainous areas that have long resisted to them. A similar policy was applied by the Chinese Nationalist Party which takes control of Taiwan in the aftermath of the Second World War, and then retreats there permanently from 1949. Until today, the performances of the Austronesian athletes have greatly contributed to the promotion of sports throughout the country and the construction of a Chinese national identity, then Taiwanese, mainly on the occasion of international competitions. The Austronesians have not, however, contented themselves with merging into the mold imposed by the authorities. Without completely breaking with the institutions, they recaptured sports practices. They have also created new ones based on daily practices, considered as specific to mountain life (hunting, sawing wood, transporting water, etc.), to make it their own festive gatherings. Belongings (to a village, a linguistic group or a religious community) are vigorously reaffirmed in a recent context of strong rural exodus towards the big cities of the plain and the loss of cultural references.

Keywords

• anthropology
• athletics games
• Taiwan
• indigenous
• sociability
• identity