Taiwanese people
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The Taiwanese people may refer to the people originating from or inhabiting Taiwan (including Taiwanese aborigines (1-2% of population of pure aborigines), the Han Chinese of Hoklo (65-70%) or Hakka ethnicity (15-20%). Taiwanese sometimes refers to more recent immigrants to Taiwan from mainland China), but usually refers to the three ethnic groups mentioned, who lived in Taiwan under Japanese occupation prior to the Mainlanders who came with Chiang Kai-shek.
| The [Neutral point of view>neutrality] of this article is [NPOV disputedisputed]. Please see the discussion on the [Taiwanese language associated with the Hoklo the largest ethnic group in Taiwan). The Hoklo communities in Taiwan, however, originated from single Hoklo male laborers from Fujian (hired by the Dutch) who married into Lowland Taiwanese aborigine communities. When statistics show that aborigines make less than 2% of Taiwan's population, they are often referring to pure-blooded aborigines, who are primarily highland aborigines of Taiwan's east coast. There are fragmented populations of lowland aborigines who still acknowledge their identity and heritage throughout Taiwan. Others have assimilated to a degree where their descendants speak Taiwanese and identify with the Hoklo majority, and it is possible to find a family where the grandparent still identifies as lowland aborigine, while the rest of his family identify as Hoklo. The Taiwanese Hakka communities, although arriving later to Taiwan from Eastern Guangdong and Fujian, may have also mixed through intermarriage with lowland aboriginal women as well. Hakka family trees are known for identifying the male ancestors by their ethnic Hakka heritage while leaving out information on the identity of the female ancestors. Also, during the process of intermarriage and assimilation, many of the lowland aboriginal women and their families took on the sinicized Hoklo and Hakka family names. Much of this happened in Taiwan prior to the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, so that by the time of Japanese occupation, most of the population that the Japanese classified as "Chinese" Hoklo and "Chinese" Hakka were in truth already of mixed ancestry. Physical features of both Taiwanese aborigine and Chinese can be found amongst the Taiwanese mainstream today. The descendants of mainlanders (sometimes called the "New Taiwanese") live within the heart of large urban centers in Taiwan such as Taipei, Taichung, or Kaohsiung. Unlike, the Hoklo and Hakka of Taiwan, the mainlanders and their families are often distinguished as the "Pure" Chinese people of Taiwan. They live primarily in Taipei County where they make up almost half of Taipei City's population. Taiwanese of Hakka heritage live in communities such as Hsinchu, Chungli, Miaoli, Meinung, Pingtung, and Taitung in Taiwan. Taiwanese of Taiwanese aborigine heritage are primarily highland aborigines who live in the Central Mountain and Pacific Coastal regions of Eastern Taiwan. The Cities of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung are known for their aboriginal communities. Taiwanese of Hoklo heritage are the most widespread of the peoples and are spread out all over Taiwan. There is a global misunderstanding of who Taiwanese people are, with many who confuse Taiwanese with the Mainlanders who arrived in Taiwan in 1949. Many people in the global community also think that all the Taiwanese are these Mainlanders who came to Taiwan in 1949 apart from the aborigine communities. During the period of Martial Law, where the Kuomintang (KMT) government was the sole party who governed Taiwan. The KMT government has "modified" Taiwan's history from a Greater China perspective and lump the pre-existing Hoklo and Hakka with the Mainlanders as Chinese, who came to Taiwan and pushed aboriginal communities into the mountains. This is a fallacy, because as mentioned earlier, the early Hoklo and Hakka who arrived in Taiwan have mixed with lowland aborigines in Taiwan. Also, due to several government factions that ruled Taiwan prior to Japanese occupation, many lowland aborigines were forcefully assimilated, and it was in their incentives to pass as Hoklo. There are Taiwanese historians who believe that the Hoklo, especially, are 90%-100% direct descendants of pure lowland aborigines in Taiwan. However, this is politically driven as well by Taiwanese who are extreme in their opposition to the KMT party.
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