American anthropologists looking through Taiwanese culture

Conclusion

Anthropologists have too often supported — in their words, in their presences, and in their deeds — the paternalistic claims of rulers suppressing the very cultures they want to study. Much anthropological work legitimates substitution of the language of Beijing for Hakka and Holo, justifies ignoring Taiwanese culture, and subordinates consideration of its specific features to writing about Chinese civilization, just as Taiwanese are economically and politically subordinated to the ethnic minority dictatorship which still rules Taiwan under the fiction of being the government of China. The “China” that Arthur Wolf and others serve in return for support of their research from what purports to be “the Republic of China” is an egregious, but unfortunately not unique, example.