Originally set to begin today with all the pomp and circumstance of many a city government sponsored festival, this year's Taipei City Aboriginal Cultural Festival (臺市原住民文化祭) has become the latest in a long line of activities that have been postponed or delayed due to the current SARS epidemic.
Now in its sixth year, the annual event was set to be the largest Taipei City Government Aboriginal Festival to date. It was intended to incorporate Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (台灣國際民族誌影展) performance groups representing Aboriginal peoples from China's Yunnan Province, in addition to representatives from Australasian Aboriginal cultures.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI CITY ABORIGINAL CULTURAL FESTIVAL
"Obviously it's a huge blow, as organizing this year's event took a lot of work. And to see all that organizational work come to nothing is a real shame," said Judy Lin (林儷蓉), an assistant researcher with Taipei's Tourism Commission (臺北市政府觀光委員會). "There's obviously no way the groups could come here at present and we could continue with the festival as originally scheduled," she said.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI CITY ABORIGINAL CULTURAL FESTIVAL
Though city officials have not yet discussed when, or indeed whether, the canceled events will take place at a future date, informed sources said August has been floated as a possibility.
For now, however, the month-long celebration of Aboriginal cultures will instead be a single event at the Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館).
Whilst the cancellation is a blow to local Aboriginal groups who, according to the center's Wang Chin-fu (王進福), see the festival as both an educational and celebratory event, the center's Aboriginal photography exhibition -- set to open this Sunday, will go ahead regardless.
"Because of the cancellations the photo exhibition has been put in the spotlight, which has meant quite a bit of extra work as regards the event's presentation," Wang said. "It's proven such a rush that we haven't got all the photographs and the book that will accompany the exhibition has yet to be printed."
The exhibition is set to see upwards of 80 photographs of Taiwan's Aboriginal peoples adorning the walls of the center's basement display hall.
Taken by both professional and amateur photographers, the pictures on display will, Wang said, give visitors an interesting and colorful insight into the history and cultural heritage of all of the nation's 11 indigenous tribes.
Located in Taipei's northern suburb of Peitou, the idea to create the capital's sole institute for Aboriginal studies was initiated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his tenure as Taipei mayor in May 1998.
Opened to the public in November last year, the 10-story building is home to NGOs, an Aboriginal cultural studies center, an indigenous arts and crafts center, a small movie auditorium as well and three floors of exhibition space. Being the first Aboriginal festival since its' opening, the institute was to have been a showpiece for the event. The cancellations, however, now mean that the center is more than just a centerpiece.
"As this was the first time the center was to play a role in the annual festival, we were hoping to play a significant part in and be a centerpiece for the festival," Wang said. "But with the present situation as it is, we have had to cancel the planned celebration of Pingbu peoples as well as the first cross-strait indigenous cultural exchange forum."
As the sole center for Aboriginal studies in Taipei, however, the center hasn't been without its critics.
Members of the Ketagalan tribe have complained that no members of the group were consulted during the museum's planning stages. Critics have also charged that past crimes against Aborigines have been ignored and even gone as far as to say that the center promotes the outdated idea of Aboriginal development under the Han Chinese rule.
These are charges that Wang wholeheartedly denies, choosing instead to point to the center's continuing success at both attracting large numbers of visitors and being an important educational asset for all of the nation's Aboriginal peoples.
"Since we opened, the center has seen upwards of 20,000 visitors, which works out on average of up to 150 people per day," Wang said. "I believe what we are doing is both an educational asset and crucial to keeping Aboriginal culture alive in Taipei, which, is after all, a melting pot for all of Taiwan's Aboriginal peoples, regardless of tribe."
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built