Chen Wen-pin (陳文彬) weaves together ancient Atayal (泰雅族) tradition and modern-day social issues in his feature debut Everlasting Moments (靈魂的旅程). Shot mostly in Atayal and Pangcah (Amis) villages and casting locals who speak tribal languages, the film places present-day indigenous life in the context of the ancient migration of the Atayal community. The result is an eloquent reflection on the relationship between Aborigines and nature, and how that harmony can be destroyed by the state apparatus.
Documentary footage of Sanying Aboriginal Community (三鶯部落) and the now demolished Sa’owac Aboriginal Community (撒瓦知部落) on the banks of the Dahan River (大漢溪) shows real-life struggles that Aborigines face in a society dominated by Han Chinese.
Having worked as a social activist and a journalist, the 42-year-old Chen is no stranger to the social injustice and discrimination shown in Everlasting Moments. The idea for the film came about when he was asked to make Msgamil: Once Upon a Time (泰雅千年), a short film commissioned by the Shei-pa National Park Headquarters (雪霸國家公園管理處).
Photo Courtesy of Chen Wen-pin
Initially, the project focused on gaga, the set of ancient teachings and beliefs that the Atayal pass from one generation to the next. A deeper understanding of Aboriginal life and the relocation issues faced by Sanying, Sijhou (溪洲) and other urban Pangcah (the name the Amis use to refer to themselves) communities, however, prompted the director to expand the short work into a feature-length project in order to “rethink the relationship between humanity and nature.”
Chen spent more than a year traveling through most of the country’s Atayal communities before deciding to shoot the film in the villages of Singuang (新光) and Cinsbu (鎮西堡) in Hsinchu County, where he says the loss of the Atayal language and culture are less severe than in other places.
For the set, traditional Atayal structures were built by local residents after discussions with the Han Chinese film crew, and prior to shooting theater veteran Chung Chiao (鍾喬) led workshops to assist villagers — who became actors in the film — in discussing their personal histories and recalling memories “buried inside their bodies.” Several tribal elders worked on the set as language consultants. Chen said that even when the production crew thought that everything was ready, people might not show up because someone had a dream that was interpreted as a bad omen.
Photo courtesy of Chen Wen-pin
“To work with the tribespeople, we had to give up our own ideas and learn to see the world from their perspective,” said Chen, best known for his award-winning performance in No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (aka Cannot Live Without You, 不能沒有你, 2009).
Chen also drew inspiration for Everlasting Moments from Atayal brothers and musicians Bulang Yukan (不浪尤幹) and Yuraw Yukan (尤勞尤幹), also an actor, whose works include Cheng Wen-tang’s (鄭文堂) Somewhere Over the Dreamland (夢幻部落) and Singing Chen’s (陳芯宜) God Man Dog (流浪神狗人).
Intrigued by the pair’s life stories, the director told his Atayal friends that he would one day write a story about them.
Photo Courtesy of Chen Wen-pin
One year later, Bulang Yukan passed away after falling from the stage while performing a concert in China. The Atayal I Don’t Remember (我所遺忘的泰雅), the last work the musician created, can be heard at the end of Chen’s film.
In Everlasting Moments, Yuraw Yukan plays both an ancient chief and a modern Aboriginal official.
The actor said that while he is usually cast as a drunk or vagabond in movies and television dramas, he feels he plays a real Atayal in Chen’s work.
“Garbed in traditional clothes and painted with facial tattoos, I walked through the mountains, breathed the air and actually felt that the ancestral spirits were around me,” Yuraw Yukan told the Taipei Times.
The film is not without controversy.
Questions are raised in Atayal director Pilin Yabu’s (比令亞布) The Moment Run Through (走過千年), which documents the making of Chen’s Msgamil, the forerunner of Everlasting Moments. According to Yabu’s film, the Han Chinese film crew entered the Atayal communities with the aim of collaborating with the inhabitants, but failed to earn the trust of all the tribespeople, leaving some feeling they had been lied to and used.
The Moment Run Through DVD can be purchased online at www.govbooks.com.tw or www.books.com.tw.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) told legislators last week that because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are continuing to block next year’s budget from passing, the nation could lose 1.5 percent of its GDP growth next year. According to the DGBAS report, officials presented to the legislature, the 2026 budget proposal includes NT$299.2 billion in funding for new projects and funding increases for various government functions. This funding only becomes available when the legislature approves it. The DGBAS estimates that every NT$10 billion in government money not spent shaves 0.05 percent off
Dec. 29 to Jan. 4 Like the Taoist Baode Temple (保德宮) featured in last week’s column, there’s little at first glance to suggest that Taipei’s Independence Presbyterian Church in Xinbeitou (自立長老會新北投教會) has Indigenous roots. One hint is a small sign on the facade reading “Ketagalan Presbyterian Mission Association” — Ketagalan being an collective term for the Pingpu (plains Indigenous) groups who once inhabited much of northern Taiwan. Inside, a display on the back wall introduces the congregation’s founder Pan Shui-tu (潘水土), a member of the Pingpu settlement of Kipatauw, and provides information about the Ketagalan and their early involvement with Christianity. Most
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was out in force in the Taiwan Strait this week, threatening Taiwan with live-fire exercises, aircraft incursions and tedious claims to ownership. The reaction to the PRC’s blockade and decapitation strike exercises offer numerous lessons, if only we are willing to be taught. Reading the commentary on PRC behavior is like reading Bible interpretation across a range of Christian denominations: the text is recast to mean what the interpreter wants it to mean. Many PRC believers contended that the drills, obviously scheduled in advance, were aimed at the recent arms offer to Taiwan by the
Like many retirement communities, The Terraces serves as a tranquil refuge for a nucleus of older people who no longer can travel to faraway places or engage in bold adventures. But they can still be thrust back to their days of wanderlust and thrill-seeking whenever caretakers at the community in Los Gatos, California, schedule a date for residents — many of whom are in their 80s and 90s — to take turns donning virtual reality headsets. Within a matter of minutes, the headsets can transport them to Europe, immerse them in the ocean depths or send them soaring on breathtaking hang-gliding expeditions