Wu Feng (; 1699,

Pinghe County Pinghe County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Zhangzhou, in southern Fujian province, PRC, bordering Guangdong province to the west. Administrative Division The administrative centre or seat of Pinghe County is Xiaoxi (). Towns ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

-1769, Zhuluo County) was a Chinese merchant whose legend was once popular in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Description

Wu Feng was a Han Chinese who befriended aborigines. According to the popular story about him, which was not recorded before 1855, he tried to persuade the A-li-shan tribe to give up their practice of headhunting, but his attempts were unsuccessful. On one occasion he declared that on the following day the aborigines would see a man in a red cloak. He told them they would cut off the man's head, but it would be the last head they ever took. The next day, the aborigines saw a man in a red cloak and decapitated him, only to find out they had killed Wu Feng himself. Horrified, they gave up the practice of headhunting forever. In the early 19th century, before 1820, a small mausoleum was built for Wu Feng. It was rebuilt and expanded in the early 20th century. This mausoleum is now a cultural landmark. This story was in school history books during the

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

period. In the 1970s, it was the subject of a long form modern dance piece, containing echoes of ''

The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...

'', by Cloud Gate Dance Theater. Some said it purports to show an example of the

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

having a "civilising" influence on the

Taiwanese aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * of or related to Taiwan **Culture of Taiwan **Geography of Taiwan ** Taiwanese cuisine *Languages of Taiwan ** Formosan languages ** Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as the Taiwanese language * Taiwanese people, residents of ...

through heroic personal sacrifice. During the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

rule of Taiwan, Wu Feng was considered a minor national hero. In 1989, soon after the 1987 lifting of

martial law in Taiwan Martial law in Taiwan () refers to the periods in the history of Taiwan after World War II, during control by the Republic of China Armed Forces of the Kuomintang-led regime. The term is specifically used to refer to the over 38-year-long c ...

and taking advantage of a new-found emphasis on human rights, aborigines who had long been offended by their perception of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

in the Wu Feng story protested against its continued presence in history books. As part of the protest, they demolished statues of Wu Feng "wherever they found them.", and Wufeng Township in Chiayi, named after the legend, was renamed Alishan Township. The same year, Minister of Education Mao Gao-wen agreed to remove the story from Taiwanese history books. The legend remains in oral tradition of some Han Chinese.

Description

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