Architecture
Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum (林安泰古厝)
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Culture and Art
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The Liberty Times Editorial: Keeping traditional ‘budaixi’ alive
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Taiwanese opera
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Groups call for public Hoklo TV
Taiwanese Hokkien
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Hoklo／Minnan (閩南裔台灣人)
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The Liberty Times Editorial: Keeping traditional ‘budaixi’ alive
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Taiwanese opera
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Groups call for public Hoklo TV
Taiwanese Hokkien
Monday, December 9, 2019
Hakka (客家人)
Beipu, a town is well known as a center of Hakka culture, especially for production of dongfang meiren tea (Eastern Beauty Tea, 東方美人茶)and its special Hakka style of tea and nuts called lei cha (擂茶).
Lee Teng-Fan's Ancient Residence (桃園大溪李騰芳古宅)
Pictures are from Wikimedia Commons
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Lee Teng-fan's Ancient Residence
Off the BeatenTrack: Lee Teng Fang Mansion (One of Taiwan’s finest old houses stands in a sea of rice fields in Taoyuan’s Dasi District)
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Taiwanese Hakka
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Hakka Affairs Council
Mainlanders (外省人)
Trailer: A Documentary Film of the Chinese Veteran, Liu Pi-Chia : Stone Dream (人類學家胡台麗的紀錄片:石頭夢-- 外省老兵 劉必稼 )
Picture is from Wikimedia Commons
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Four Four South Village
Illegal example: Treasure Hill Community(Built themselves on the government's land without permission, 寶藏巖聚落)
Picture is from Wikimedia Commons
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Treasure Hill
Treasure Hill Artist Village
Rainbow Village: Sadness and Beauty
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97-Year-Old Grandpa Saves Village by Painting Buildings with Colorful Art
Heart Village in New-Peitou, Taipei (中心新村)
Heart Village is located in Forest Water District, also in the middle of the New-Peitou section. The area of the village is about 13 hm2. The native village dwellers were 79 military dependents families. One of the families is Muslim. There is a unique public bathroom, which in people taking their toiletries and showering. It belongs to the Ministry of National Defense, nearby the Peitou hospital, which was a hot-spring sanatorium in the Japanese colonial period. Peitou hospital had been a psychiatric hospital since 1960s.
Peitou is pronounced by the indigenous Ketangalan meaning the witch. In the late 19th century, Ouely, German, had operated the first hot-spring spa club in New-Peitou. After governance by Japan, a Japanese general had gone to the club while he caught illness and recovered. Hos-spring had been well-known. Japanese Military had bought the land ownership throughout New-Peitou area, almost 7 million foots. When overcome Taiwan Black Death, Military Hospital and hot-spring sanatorium had set up. The hospital had been famous on the war of 1904-1905 between Russia and Japan.
After Taiwan Retroration, Taiwan Provincial Governor's Office and International Red Cross came to receive properties and facilities, including the Military Hospital. The officers had lived in some houses and set up the Heart Village. In that times, the society diffused post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); therefore, the Peitou hospital had founded psychiatric health. Mr. Zhu, one of the director of this hospital had elected to be the first village head. The architecture of Heart Village are 3 categories; the first one is part of Military Hospital taken over by Japanese. The second one is built in 1964, donated from Chinese Women’s League. The third one is built on dwellers’ own by superior consent.
From: https://www.taipeiheartvillage.com/history
Military Dependents' Village (眷村)
Legal example: Forty Four South Village in Taipei (四四南村)
Picture is from Wikimedia Commons
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Four Four South Village
Illegal example: Treasure Hill Community(Built themselves on the government's land without permission, 寶藏巖聚落)
Picture is from Wikimedia Commons
Read:
Treasure Hill
Treasure Hill Artist Village
Rainbow Village: Sadness and Beauty
Read:
97-Year-Old Grandpa Saves Village by Painting Buildings with Colorful Art
Heart Village in New-Peitou, Taipei (中心新村)
Heart Village is located in Forest Water District, also in the middle of the New-Peitou section. The area of the village is about 13 hm2. The native village dwellers were 79 military dependents families. One of the families is Muslim. There is a unique public bathroom, which in people taking their toiletries and showering. It belongs to the Ministry of National Defense, nearby the Peitou hospital, which was a hot-spring sanatorium in the Japanese colonial period. Peitou hospital had been a psychiatric hospital since 1960s.
Peitou is pronounced by the indigenous Ketangalan meaning the witch. In the late 19th century, Ouely, German, had operated the first hot-spring spa club in New-Peitou. After governance by Japan, a Japanese general had gone to the club while he caught illness and recovered. Hos-spring had been well-known. Japanese Military had bought the land ownership throughout New-Peitou area, almost 7 million foots. When overcome Taiwan Black Death, Military Hospital and hot-spring sanatorium had set up. The hospital had been famous on the war of 1904-1905 between Russia and Japan.
After Taiwan Retroration, Taiwan Provincial Governor's Office and International Red Cross came to receive properties and facilities, including the Military Hospital. The officers had lived in some houses and set up the Heart Village. In that times, the society diffused post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); therefore, the Peitou hospital had founded psychiatric health. Mr. Zhu, one of the director of this hospital had elected to be the first village head. The architecture of Heart Village are 3 categories; the first one is part of Military Hospital taken over by Japanese. The second one is built in 1964, donated from Chinese Women’s League. The third one is built on dwellers’ own by superior consent.
From: https://www.taipeiheartvillage.com/history
The Mainlander's Identity Crisis
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Taiwan Indigenous people (台灣原住民)
Picture is from Wikimedia Commons
Plains Indigenous Peoples:
Ketagalan, Kavalan, Kulon, Taokas, Pazeh, Papora, Babuza, Hoanya, Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao.Brief
Detail Part 1
Detail Part 2
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Taiwanese indigenous peoples
Pingpu Peoples
Plains indigenous peoples
Taivoan (大武壠族)
Taivoan people in Xiaolin offer to the ancestral spirits at the Shrine at the Night Ceremony
Taivoan Night Ceremony in Alikuan
The Shrine of Taivoan in Dazhuang, Hualian
The Shrine of Taivoan in Laonong, Kaohsiung
The Shrine of Taivoan in Liuchongxi, Tainan
Pictures are from Wikimedia Commons
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Taivoan people
Friday, December 6, 2019
Papora (拍瀑拉族)
Kingdom of Middag (Orange), Dutch Territory (Pink), Spanish Territory (Green)
Picture are from Wikimedia Commons
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Papora people
Kingdom of Middag
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Siraya (西拉雅族)
Toushe Village Taizu Night Sacrifice
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Siraya people
Siraya Aborigines call for official tribal recognition
Toushe Village Taizu Night Sacrifice
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Siraya National Scenic Area
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Truku (太魯閣族)
Read: Taroko people
Truku people seek recognition
By Ko Shu-ling
Convinced that the Truku tribe of Hualien County evolved differently from its Sedeq ancestors in Nantou County, Tera Yudau (鐵拉尤道 ) has dedicated himself over the past decade to press for the official recognition of the Truku as an Aboriginal tribe.
Tera Yadau, who's Chinese name is Lee Chih-shoon (李季順 ), has managed to collect 15,000 signatures from his people and took the case to the Cabinet's Council of Indigenous Peoples for further review, pending the final approval of the Cabinet.
The council is preparing to contract an ethnologist to study the tribe's pedigree, language and social system in a bid to grant the Truku people's wish to restore their dignity.
According to Lin Chiang-i (林江義), director of the council's Planning Department, the council will present draft amendments to a measure regarding the recognition of Aboriginal tribes to the Cabinet for ratification today.
Among other things, the draft would expand the members of the review committee from 10 to between 17 and 23 to make the review mechanism of the nation's Aboriginal tribes more complete.
"The reason behind this is to include ethnologists, anthropologists and politically-neutral social elite on the committee panel," Lin said. "By doing so, we hope the mechanism would function more impartially and objectively."
The committee at present consists of 10 representatives from the nation's 10 officially recognized sub-tribes of the Kaoshan Aboriginal people.
The Kaoshan tribes, as opposed to the Pingpu tribes, are indigenous people living in the mountainous areas.
The Pingpu tribes refer to the indigenous people living on the plains and their cultures and life-styles were greatly influenced by the Han immigrants who arrived on the island during the course of the 17th century.
The Chinese immigrants used "Pingpu Fan" (平埔番 ), or "savage on the plain," to describe the head-hunting Aborigines.
Unlike the Aborigines living in mountain areas, who lived from hunting, the Pingpu are described in historical documents as fishermen, with few agricultural skills.
Over the centuries, the Pingpu intermarried with Han Chinese and most of their language and customs were lost.
Like the Kaoshan Aborigines' 10 sub-tribes -- all of which have already been recognized as official tribes -- the Pingpu people also consist of 10 sub-tribes.
The 10 recognized Kaoshan Aboriginal tribes are the Atayal, Saisiyat, Bunun, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Amis, Tao and Thao.
The 10 Pingpu tribes are the Kavalan, Ketagalan, Makattao, Taokas, Pazzehe, Vupuran, Poavosa, Arikun, Lloa and Siraiya.
Following the government's recognition of the Thao as the nation's 10th official Aboriginal tribe in 2001, the Cabinet last year approved a proposal presented by the Aboriginal Council to recognize the Kavalan people as the nation's 11th Aboriginal tribe.
Commenting on Tera Yudau's request, Lin said that the council will handle the matter carefully and in accordance with the due process of the law.
"This is a serious and important issue. We respect the tribe's ethnic consciousness and will remain impartial and neutral while handling the matter," Lin said.
According to Lin, more information is still needed for the official recognition of an Aboriginal tribe in addition to the tribe's wish to become one.
"In this case, it's obvious that most of the tribe's people in Hualien County want to be recognized as Truku," Lin said.
"However, we still need to know more about their pedigree, demography, cultural uniqueness and language to see whether they really stand out and are different from other indigenous tribes."
Tera Yudau, superintendent of the Yutong Junior High School, said that Hualien County's Truku tribe has long been incorrectly categorized as part of the Atayal tribal system and has evolved very differently from its ancestors, the Sedeq.
"The mistake has its origin in the Japanese colonial era when the Japanese ethnologists wrongfully categorized the Atayal and Sedeq tribes as one because both of the tribes' people had facial tattoos," he said.
He also opposed to the idea of naming his tribe as Sedeq, because of cultural considerations.
"`Sedeq' in our language means third person and the outer self, while `Truku' means first person and the inner self as well as those men who are brave, honest, generous and kind and those women who are good at weaving, house chores and loyal to their husbands," he said.
From:Taipei Times
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
THAO (邵族)
'Home at last!' (Taipei Times)
By Yu Sen-lun
Wearing
traditional costumes and performing age-old rituals, nearly 200 Aboriginal
people from the Thao tribe -- the smallest Abo-riginal group on the island --
returned to their ancestral land yesterday, celebrating what they described as
a "rebirth" of their tribal culture.
Women sang loudly together with
tears in their eyes. They sprinkled rice wine on the ground to inform the gods
of their arrival.
"After 50 years of
fighting, we are finally returning to our own land," said one Thao.
Since the Japanese occupa-tion,
the Thao have lived in the Tehua community area on the shore of Sun Moon Lake,
near the epicenter of the devastating 921 earthquake. The quake destroyed most
of the hotels and tourist spots around the lake and also caused serious damage
to the Thao community at Tehua. At least 180 houses in the village collapsed,
95 percent of which belonged to the Thaos. Most of the tribe's 283 members have
also been left unemployed by the quake.
This, they said yesterday, was
the main reason for the "land-return" ceremony. They said now that
their homes were destroyed, they are now going back to where their roots are.
The ceremony took place in a
religious as well as political atmosphere. Garlands were placed on the heads of
the 200 villagers. Then, singing together, they took a raft across a small bay
out onto a nearby peninsula -- called Puzi -- that is their traditional
homeland. After the 10 minute ride from the Tehua community, shouts and cheers
went up as they landed. "Piakalinkin!" they shouted, meaning peace
and safety.
"We Thao people like to be
close to nature. That's why we wear garlands on our heads," said Mani, a
Thao woman in her 60s.
Fifty years ago, the tribe -- which numbered
around 900 at that time -- lived in an area on the southern shore of Sun Moon
Lake they call Puzi -- the Thao word for `white.' For two hundred years the
Thao grew rice on the fertile flats, hunting and fishing locally and living
quietly isolated from the rest of Taiwan.
But plans by Taiwan's Japanese
occupiers to turn the natural lake into a reservoir to feed a hydro-electric
plant meant much of the Thao's low-lying homeland would be flooded. The tribe
were moved to new land to the south-east of the lake at what is now the Tehua
community. They were not given any choice in the matter. Generations later,
their traditional tribal culture has been diluted by Taiwanese and Chinese
culture, and their population reduced to only 283.
When the KMT
"liberated" Taiwan, they moved into the area, developing the lake into
what is now the island's most popular tourist destination.
"They [the KMT government]
let the Han [Taiwanese] move here and integrate with our people," said
Panu Kapamumu, the director of the Association for the Cultural Development for
Thao People.
Panu believes this was a major
step toward the destruction of Thao culture.
"They did not take us
seriously, they just wanted us to dance and sing," he said.
Thao is still not recognized as
an official Aboriginal tribe by the government, because it was long thought to
be a sub-division of the Tsou tribe by anthropologists.
But villagers said the
government took advantage of their culture while politically ignoring their
status and rights.
The vanishing of their language
is a major indicator of this loss of culture, as few people under the age of 45
speak the tribal language anymore.
Panu
said yesterday that the ceremony represented "a chance for our people to
trace our culture back toward the source."
After arriving at Puzi, senior
villagers and spiritualists of the tribe started to identify old defense works
and ancestral tombs, reaffirming the connection between the land and the Thao
tribe.
"We are planning to
resettle here now and restore our culture here," said Panu.
Villagers then started fires
and made traditional rice cooking containers from fresh bamboo cut nearby.
With everyone lending a hand,
villagers enjoyed the traditional Thao meal and rice wine. They decided to camp
on the site, to sleep where their ancestors slept -- to sleep at home again.
Read:
Thao people
Seediq Bale (賽德克族)
Movie Trailer: Seediq Bale
Read:
Musha Incident
Taiwan in Time: The long road to retaliation
Taiwan in Time: Fighting for the oppressor
Read:
Musha Incident
Taiwan in Time: The long road to retaliation
Taiwan in Time: Fighting for the oppressor
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