Shouting slogans, singing traditional songs and performing traditional dances, dozens of young Amis Aborigines from the village of A’tolan yesterday gathered in front of the Legislative Yuan, accusing the government of planning development projects in their traditional domains without first getting their consent.
The Amis protesters — mostly young people — were upset over plans by the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration Headquarters to invite private corporations to build a holiday resort along the A’tolan coast, which is administratively known as Dulan Village (都蘭) in Taitung County’s Donghe Township (東河), through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) plan.
“The [administration] is trying to build a holiday resort on the coast of A’tolan. The location that they picked is called Dulanbi (都蘭鼻), or ‘Pacifalan’ in our language,” said Loan Alang, a spokesman for the village’s protest action group. “Pacifalan is believed to be the location where our ancestors landed before they established the village and it’s also where we hold our traditional festivals.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“It belongs to all residents of A’tolan and to all Amis people. The government has no right to allow private corporations to take over,” he added.
Suming, an Amis singer who was born in A’tolan, also called on the government to halt the development project, which, he said, would only bring destruction to the village and to the ecosystem.
“If you really loved A’tolan, you would not harm it,” he said. “Part of the beauty of the village comes from the Amis culture and the beauty of the place cannot be replaced by large resort hotels.”
The protesters said they would perform the “dance of defense” at Pacifalan on Saturday.
The “dance of defense” is a traditional dance unique to A’tolan.
Dancers dress in full traditional regalia, with knives and small bells and carrying decorated umbrellas. As they dance, they move the umbrella up and down and jump to make the bells ring.
Village elders said that the dance originated with armed escorts who accompanied hunters or women and children on trips outside the village.
The bells were meant to warn possible enemies along the way that the travelers were escorted by armed warriors, the elders said.
Elders also explained that escorts used to carry pikes, but as the Japanese colonial government prohibited this for fear that they might attack the Japanese, dancers then replaced the pikes with umbrellas.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS