In 1997, at a time when coverage of the handover of sovereignty over Hong Kong to the PRC was splashed across the news media, a small group of Aborigines from eastern Taiwan went north to demonstrate, launching a movement in which they demanded that their land be returned to them. This caught Wei Te-Sheng's attention.
《賽德克巴萊》也因一則新聞讓他有感而發。1997 年香港主權回歸中國大陸前，媒體大幅報導，卻有一小群東部原住民北上抗議，發起「還我土地」運動。