Interethnic marriages pose a challenge to methods of official racial identification both for spouses and their offspring. Given that the official system only allows a person to indicate one race, many indigenous women lose their official indigenous status and do not transmit it to their children, even though they still retain a sense of self-identification as indigenous. In recent years the increased prominence given to indigenous people, both in Taiwan and throughout the world, has led to an increase in the number of registered indigenous people. Dominant groups, such as Hakka men, are unlikely to choose indigenous status. Hence the problem emerges among their spouses and children. While some children of mixed parentage are keen to identify with their indigenous roots, those living in mixed Hakka-indigenous villages are unlikely to adopt indigenous status. Official registration allows for a person to change their surname and adopt their maternal surname and tribal identity. However, not all tribes use the Han Chinese paternal logic. They may prefer to keep tribal recognition and family inheritance as two separate things. The official identity system limits the possibilities available and forces them to make choices that do not correspond with their self-identification. However, the research shows that children who do opt for indigenous identity show a greater degree of interest in identifying and understanding their indigenous culture. The official system of identification should, then, pay more attention to an individual’s own self-identification for only then will indigenous status retain its significance.