Despite her initial dream of becoming a model, Tapas or Chang Ling-hsin (張凌馨) is a 14-year-old girl who is not obsessed with taking duck-face selfies. Armed with her Nikon D60, she focuses her 18-55mm lens and snaps a few shots of schoolchildren playing basketball outside of her old school, Taoshan Elementary School (桃山國小). The court overlooks the fogged-covered mountains of her hometown, an Atayal village called Chingchuan (清泉) which is near Hsinchu.
Her camera was a gift from Australian photographer Jonathan Burke, a long-time Taipei resident who regularly volunteers at the school. He gave it to Tapas in January after noticing her experimentation with angles and perspectives on her cellphone camera. Since then, Tapas has been photographing scenes from Chingchuan to submit to the Makapah Arts Award for images depicting Aboriginal culture.
CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES
Photo courtesy of Tapas
Despite her youth, Tapas understands the stereotypes people have of Aboriginal people and hopes to challenge those negative perceptions through her photography.
“I don’t feel oppressed or marginalized at all, which is how people might expect us to feel,” she said.
Aboriginal culture is often filtered to cater to the needs of tourists, especially in the form of costumes, dance and music. Tapas’ pride in her Atayal culture is evident in her pictures but in a different and subtle way. Her portraitures capture everyday life in Chingchuan from special occasions like birthday gatherings to friends having a chat. The message she wishes to convey is that Atayal people do the same things other people do.
Photo courtesy Jonathan Burke
“Each shot that I take captures the emotion I am feeling at that moment, whether it is happy, sad or frustrated, so while the pictures tell my own story, anyone can relate to them because life is about experiencing all these various emotions,” Tapas said.
Although her message is universal, Tapas’ love for Chingchuan is obvious. Gazing into the same mountainous backdrop, she talks about a picture she took of the fog resting on the trees after an argument she had with a classmate.
She says that “taking the picture really helped me to let go of the negative energy, and the feeling that other people glean from viewing it is also very peaceful.”
Photo courtesy of Tapas
FAMILY SUPPORT
Tapas’ family did not initially understand the meanings behind her photographs. She describes how they used to just look at them and say “great,” handing the camera back to her.
After seeing how dedicated Tapas has been towards pursuing this “hobby” though, her family, especially her mother, has been supportive of her decision to enter competitions and even pursue photography as a profession.
Photo courtesy of Tapas
This encouragement is important to Tapas since she is very close to her extended family. She calls her cousins “brothers and sisters,” and they are often the main subjects of her work.
Referring to a picture she took of her older sister playing the piano, Tapas says that if she had to write a caption for her photobook portfolio, it would read: “Everyone’s life is like a song and each song tells a different story.”
Tapas’ photography has caught the eye of Taipei-based foreign filmmakers who are working on a crowdfunding campaign on Fuudai.com to upgrade her lens to a Nikkor 18-200mm for a greater zoom function so that she can better tell her stories.
Tapas says she is still too young to decide her future. Although she adds that her mother believes photography is “at least a more practical option to pursue than modeling.”
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had