In 1909 the Museum of Ethnography purchased a collection of 330 objects from Umlauff Inc. in Hamburg. Out of these, 149 items originated from Taiwan or Formosa, the former Portuguese name of this island. They are from some of Taiwan’s indigenous ethnic groups, primarily paiwan and atayai. These groups speak Austronesian languages. It is generally believed that people first settling in the Pacific Ocean archipelago arrived from Taiwan.
Today, the two groups constitute less than 2 % of the population of Taiwan which is 23 million. The Chinese majority has immigrated in two waves. The main part came in a period that lasted from the 17th till the end of the 19th century. The rest of them originate from Guomindang supporters who fled to the island after World War II and the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949.
When the items were collected, between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a Japanese colony. Its indigenous populations were studied and they were to be assimilated. This was often done by use of rather brutal methods. The wooden statuette probably demonstrates how a paiwan artist would depict a Japanese colonizer.