On April 2 and 3, the T.K. Rock StreetVoice Festival drew a large crowd. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at the event that everyone living in Taiwan is a taike (台客, Taiwanese bumpkin).
Everyone at the festival showed the great passion and vitality of a taike, which fits well with Ma's definition. There were also a good number of taike from different parts of the world who long since have become part of Taiwan's lifestyle. Taiwan born and bred taike embraced them and they all sang and danced together at the festival, which belongs to all taike.
On April 8, Bobby Chen (陳昇), Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) and Hakka singer Lin Sheng-hsiang (林生祥) -- Taiwanese natives and favorites of taike fans -- gave a performance in Yunlin County (is that Taiwanese enough for you?). People might be surprised to know that the concert was held to help save the nesting grounds of the Pitta brachyura -- the Indian pitta or "eight-color bird" -- which only stays in Taiwan a few months each spring.
The idea of a group of environmentalists inviting popular taike singers in the hope of attracting people from every social sector, but especially young people, to a concert is interesting. Indian pittas, which arrive every spring and become a unique group of temporary taike, can be found in the low-altitude mountain areas near Touliu (
The key here is that knowing taike magnanimity and passion, pittas never delay their annual visit. They lay their eggs here and then bring their offspring back as part of their annual migration pattern.
This echoes the feelings of many foreign friends. They were not born in Taiwan and did not grow up here, but having been to Taiwan, they feel the Taiwanese people's unique passion and appreciate the customs -- the Taiwanese flavor. As a result, they are either reluctant to leave Taiwan or they return year after year.
There are in fact a good number of endangered species willing to come to Taiwan and become taike. For example, gray-faced buzzards come to the waterside of Kenting's Lungluantan (
These taike birds come at different seasons and stay in different areas. But, no matter when or where they come, they are welcome by all Taiwanese people and Taiwanese nature, showing the taike spirit: embracing diversity and being passionate.
So it is a pity that these migratory birds are faced with the risk of being kicked out of Taiwan. Taking the Indian pittas as an example, some profit-driven businesspeople are eager to build water-guzzling industrial infrastructure along Yunlin's coastline. The government, only looking for short-term economic gain, has spent billions of dollars on the construction of the Hushan Reservoir in the area where the pittas normally reside. Black-faced spoonbills are also threatened by the building of the Pinnan Industrial Complex at their wintering site in Chiku (
I want to express my respect for Bobby Chen, Chen Ming-chang and Lin. I also hope that propagating their taike spirit can arouse the Taiwanese people's passion so that they open their arms to embrace and welcome the black-faced spoonbills and the Indian pittas back again and again.
Chen Tai-an is a lecturer in environmental resource management at Transworld Institute of Technology and a doctoral student in the department of marine environment and engineering at National Sun Yat-sen University.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
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