Aboriginal communities sing not for pleasure, but to preserve their culture and history, Puyuma singer Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw said on Friday.
“The stereotype of Aborigines is that we love to sing. However, we do not sing for the pleasure of singing. Instead, we sing because song is the medium through which Aboriginal culture and history are passed down from generation to generation,” Sangpuy said ahead of a performance at the National Theater in Taipei.
Sangpuy gained fame domestically and abroad with his album Yaangad, which means “life” in the Puyuma language.
Photo provided by the National Theater Concert Hall
He bases his songs on actual events, Sangpuy said.
“I am inspired by everyday life. I feel that if I create something that even I like and am moved by, it would move others,” he said.
He writes about environmental issues that he has seen, but have not garnered much attention, such as spent nuclear rods on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), plans to build a solar installation in the Jhihben Wetlands (知本濕地) in his home county of Taitung and attempts in 2012 to relocate traditional burial grounds to develop tourism.
Photo: Chen Yu-hsun, Taipei Times
He uses his songs to introduce Taiwan to his audience, allowing them a glimpse of the nation and showing them that Mandarin is not the only language spoken here, Sangpuy said.
He uses natural elements in his compositions and insists on singing in the Puyuma language.
“Aborigines are not alone in seeing their language slowly die out; it is a situation shared by minorities the world over,” Sangpuy said.
As long as he continues to create in Puyuma and speak it on a daily basis, the Puyuma people continue to live, he said.
Despite his emphasis on the language, Sangpuy said that he does not see the need to change his official name, Lu Chieh-hsing (盧皆興), to his Aboriginal name.
“Everyone in the village [Katatipul in Taitung] calls me Sangpuy. They know me as Sangpuy,” he said, adding that it is important what his people call him, not what his identification card shows.
He left the village at the age of 27, which was perhaps why he placed great stock in his people’s traditions and culture, Sangpuy said, adding that his first album, Dalan, also influenced him.
He created Dalan with his father, who died before its release, which convinced him to continue creating music, he said.
“I believe it was, in part, my father’s last wish [to remain a full-time musician], while my belief that music helps preserve our traditions was also a factor” in his career path, Sangpuy said.
“As fish require water to swim and birds the sky to fly, so do I require music to be myself,” Sangpuy said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS