Aboriginal cultural traditions were met with studied indifference at the time, so Wei Te-wen invited Lee Saa-lih, former director of the National Palace Museum's exhibitions department, to write something on the historical evolution of dress among Taiwan Aborigines, but this involved many difficulties because Aboriginal culture was not recorded or written down. Getting documentary material proved more difficult than expected, and pictorial material was even more elusive.
在當年原住民文化傳統遭到漠視的時空裡，魏德文就邀請曾任故宮展覽組組長的李莎莉，編撰台灣原住民服飾的流變，但困難重重，因為原住民文化是沒有文字紀錄的，文獻取得比預期辛苦，而圖像資料，更是煞費苦心。