The Australian Office in Taipei has organized an exhibition titled “Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists” at the National Taiwan Museum. To promote the event, Australian Office in Taipei Representative Gary Cowan wrote an article about Australian and Taiwanese Aborigines having a shared heritage and creating a future together, which was published in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Monday last week.
In the article, Cowan introduces the exhibition’s more than 140 pieces painted with ocher and clay on tree bark. Made between 1948 and 1985, these paintings incorporate patterns, motifs and stories that can be traced back 50,000 years and reflect the religious and cultural stories of the Aborigines living in Arnhem Land in northern Australia.
Although Cowan did not draw a connection between the Aboriginal bark paintings and Taiwan, perhaps due to space limitations, this connection is the focus of the exhibition.
Taiwan’s Aborigines are a branch of Austronesian-speaking peoples, whose origin has always been an unsolved mystery in research on human migration, but the key to the mystery was hidden inside the paper mulberry tree, the main material for making bark cloth.
The paper mulberry tree is a species native to subtropical zones, but most of them in Oceania are female and unable to bear fruit alone. The paper mulberry cannot be spread by birds flying away with the seeds or by the wind scattering them. The species is most likely found in Oceania thanks to human migration.
The bark of the tree was often used to make paper and cloth, also known as bark cloth, and was an important resource for Austronesian peoples.
A DNA analysis of paper mulberry trees found in Taiwan, China, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific by an Academia Sinica research team found that the trees used in Austronesian cultures were most likely transported from Taiwan. This groundbreaking research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and can be found on the journal’s Web site.
The paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) belongs to the family Moraceae. In Taiwan, the plant is commonly known as the “deer’s tree.”
More than 300 years ago, the Tainan-based Kingdom of Tungning was able to export 120,000 deerskins per year because deer feed on paper mulberry leaves. Domesticated animals such as pigs, cattle, goats and rabbits also forage on the plant.
The tree’s fruit has a fragrant and sweet taste, but it cannot be commercialized because it is too soft and spoils quickly.
Paper mulberry trees also served as an outstanding pioneer plant because of their breadth and adaptability.
The tree can absorb large amounts of airborne dust and sulfur dioxide. Its strong tolerance to dust, as well as quick reproduction and growth, make it a suitable choice for urban greening.
Li Dao-yong is director of the City South Culture and History Studio.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations