國立臺灣大學藏有海南島黎族文物影像數百件，對與該地該族一向少有往來之臺灣人類學界而言，該批物件的存在，著實頗為奇特。臺北帝國大學的海南島調查團於1941年在宮本延人的主導下，帶回了這些物像，不久之後，卻也「淹沒」於世間，直到今天才數位見日。海南黎族材料，來了臺灣，日人卻離去，中、臺又絕裂，加上臺大學者專研本地原住民，以致宮本渡海運來的人類學物像資料，始終未有機會「出土」問世。這是時間進展過程中，所出現的實體空間紛爭結果。空間上的人群不睦，物像材料就形同隔絕於原來的主人和主體學術的興趣之外。宮本延人的記錄是為賦與物像意義與價值的第一環，典藏日久後產生的「珍貴」效應，是為賦意的第二環，臺大2006、2007年的數位，當理是第三環。中國「黎族學」於海南在地延續賦與知識意義，論著大量。這套賦意系統不會因加入臺大的第二、三次賦意，而有太大的改變。主要的引目焦點反而是因時空曾有斷裂、交惡、失聯的記錄，才使得物像材料獲有一分想像上價值。「珍貴」因時空偶然而來，在人類學知識需求目標上，「賦意」並不會因「珍貴」而添分，反而是經多時空旅程之後的「珍貴」民族學物像，終須放下身段，走入「黎族學」的常態知識範圍內，尋求有趣的考據效果與生活對話。

There are several hundred folk artworks/traditional daily utensils and old photos of the Li People of Hainan Island, China stored in the Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University (NTU). It is very unusual to have such kind of anthropological collections in Taiwan.In 1941, an investigation team from the Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University brought back those materials. However it was not until the project of digitalization of all collections conducted by the Department in recent years, that one would know that Taiwanese anthropologists have the opportunity to “study” Li material culture out of Hainan. Just four
years right after Japanese scholars had transfered Li materials to Taiwan,
they left. And then the civil war caused serious antagonism between
Taiwan and China. Under the circumstances, academic contacts on the Li
became impossible among NTU anthropologists and Chinese ethnologists.
Furthermore, most of local ethnographers have devoted themselves to the
sphere of Austronesian aboriginal cultures in Taiwan, and seem to have
forgotten the Li materials which are put in a museum storage room on
campus.What Miyamoto Nobuto recorded while doing fieldwork in Hainan
gave for the first time an academic meaning to these collections. The
second renewed meaning came from a “precious” imagination on the materials through their “old age”. Attention was paid to the artworks/
utensils and photos for the third time by professors and their assistants at NTU when participating in the work of digitalization. On the other hand,at present Li studies in China are much more prosperous than in the
Republican era. Quite a few works of good quality have been published.
All academic contributions nevertheless have nothing to do with the Li
materials and the digitalization in Taiwan. In other words, it will not
change anything on Li studies in progress in China without taking into
consideration NTU’s relevant materials. People feel that the NTU Li
collections are valuable because of the history of disconnection. For
anthropological purpose, an accidental preciousness of a particular group
of materials does not have any significant value. What I suggest is that
scholars who are working on the NTU Li collections should initiate a new
field research in Hainan, and study old materials in the daily life context of the Li community.