The road to recovery has been slow for the Aboriginal residents of Wulai (烏來) in New Taipei City, many of whom have been affected by the typhoons earlier this year. But this Sunday, Santa will be spreading some holiday cheer to the town’s youngest residents, handing out toys and donated school supplies, as well as leading a group of pint-sized carolers.
The idea behind “Christmas in Wulai” started in 2011 with long-time Taipei expat Gary Smoke. As a Vietnam War veteran, Smoke says he’s seen what people are capable of doing to each other and wanted to contribute something meaningful to the community he was living in for a change. At the time, Smoke was also collecting instructional books recycled by English teachers in Taiwan who left their jobs when he met Tony Coolidge (he’s also a contributor for the Taipei Times). Coolidge was born in Wulai to an Atayal Aboriginal mother and American serviceman father and had just returned to Taiwan to rediscover his roots. Like Smoke, Coolidge also felt compelled to give back to the community.
“I said, ‘hey, why don’t we put on a Christmas show up in Wulai?’” Smoke says. “The rest is history.”
Photo courtesy of Maciej Korbas
Smoke now serves as the international relations director at Coolidge’s Taiwan-based non-profit organization, Atayal, which aims to connect indigenous people around the world. In the past, they’ve arranged for musicians, storytellers and children’s choirs from nearby churches to perform outside of Wulai Atayal Museum, and this year’s event will be just as boisterous.
“I’ll walk down the streets in my Santa suit handing out candy and people will stop and hand me their babies, asking me to pose so that they can get a picture of Santa with their baby,” Smoke tells me.
Santa and his helpers will hand out Christmas bells and clappers to children, encouraging them to dance. Although some might initially be too shy to join in, most eventually come around.
“Once people know Santa is here, the crowd is just in frenzy mode,” Smoke adds.
Besides organizing the yearly Christmas event, Smoke is trying to implement new programs in Wulai that will have more long-lasting change. One idea is to do a walking tour of Wulai led by a local Atayal guide and accompanied by an English translator. Another is to develop the library in the museum by donating his English textbooks and converting the place into a learning center. Finally, Smoke also wishes to start a soccer tournament in Wulai that will bring together Atayal children and students from international schools.
Smoke says that all the projects are intertwined and have to do with children of different backgrounds coming together and learning from one another. In particular, the idea to host soccer tournaments came from the English-language basketball camps Coolidge had been organizing for children in Tainan.
“Our expectations are high and it’s all contingent on collaborating with Wulai’s Atayal community,” Smoke says.
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend