The ATAYAL organization and Taipei Volunteer Fire Department have teamed up with the Community Services Center to sponsor a clothing and toy drive for members of Wulai’s (烏來) Atayal indigenous community. Donations can be dropped off at the Community Services Center or taken directly to an event this Sunday afternoon to be held in front of the Atayal Museum (泰雅民族博物館) in Wulai.
Activities will include Christmas caroling and a raffle for a mountain bike and children can have their photos taken with Santa Claus.
“The donation drive for the people in Wulai is the first one of many that we hope to do,” says Gary Smoke, fire marshal of the Taipei Volunteer Fire Department. “Our involvement is to give something back to Taiwan.”
Photo courtesy of Tony Coolidge
The Wulai Christmas clothing and toy drive was inspired in part by the Wufeng Project (五峰計畫), a volunteer-driven initiative to build a community center for Atayal people in Cingcyuan (清泉), Hsinchu County. The project organized photography and art workshops for children in Cingcyuan and auctioned their creations to raise NT$2.1 million for the center.
Organizers of the Wulai drive hope to emulate the Wufeng Project, says Tony Coolidge (陳華友), the head of ATAYAL, an American nonprofit organization that seeks to make connections between members of indigenous tribes in Taiwan and the US.
“I’ve been seeing this growing awareness and interest in the expat community to reach out to indigenous people,” says Coolidge, who is a member of the Atayal tribe and was born in Wulai. “We’re hoping that this is a small thing that can grow into something more.”
Smoke says he hopes that the Taipei Volunteer Fire Department and ATAYAL can also help forge a relationship between the Atayal community and members of indigenous tribes in the northwest US to facilitate cultural exchanges and study abroad programs.
The organizers of the toy and clothing drive will work with Hsinhsien Church (信賢教會) in Wulai to distribute items to children. Coolidge says the drive will focus on children living in single-parent households or those left with relatives while their parents seek work in cities. Items will also be given to children in families that have been affected by alcoholism.
The greatest need is for school-age children’s clothing, as well as arts and crafts supplies and educational toys targeted to children age 12 or younger. Sports equipment, including basketballs and baseballs, is also in demand.
Donations of secondhand computers are welcome. Smoke says members of the Taipei Volunteer Fire Department will repair computers and use them to create a network for the Atayal community in Wulai.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist