Hu Tai-li (胡台麗), an anthropologist, ethnographic filmmaker and adjunct research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Ethnology, has died following an illness.
She was 72 years old, former Council of Indigenous Peoples minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) said on Sunday.
Sun wrote on Facebook on Sunday morning that he was shocked and saddened to hear late on Saturday night of the passing of Hu, a well-respected friend of Indigenous peoples.
Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Cultural Heritage
Born in 1950, Hu, a pioneer of ethnographic films, graduated from National Taiwan University’s (NTU) department of history and obtained a doctorate in anthropology from City University of New York.
She concurrently served as a research fellow at Academia Sinica, a professor at National Tsing Hua University’s Institute of Anthropology, chairwoman of the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival and head of the Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography.
Hu directed and produced a number of documentaries, and published several books that inspired the study of Taiwan’s Indigenous communities, new immigrants and ethnic groups, and gender issues.
In 1984, Hu made her first ethnographic documentary titled The Return of Gods and Ancestors.
Her film Voices of Orchid Island won the Best Documentary Film award at the 1993 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and a Silver Plaque at the 1994 Chicago International Film Festival.
In 1997, her documentary Passing Through My Mother-in-law’s Village became the first one in Taiwan to be shown in commercial theaters.
Hu’s other films have received awards at several international film festivals: Returning Souls received a special mention in the Intangible Cultural Heritage category at the 2012 Jean Rouch International Film Festival in Paris, and a Gold Remi Award in the Ethnic and Cultural category at the 2013 WorldFest Houston in Texas.
Hu in 1986 published her first book, titled Sex and Death, which described her experiences in Papua New Guinea, where she conducted field research after earning her doctorate, but before returning to Taiwan.
“We often worry that the culture of Aboriginal tribes is on the verge of disappearing, but we don’t ask whether our own culture is about to disappear,” Hu wrote.
“If we are not willing to abandon our prejudices, and face our own and other ethnic cultures humbly, we will never escape the fate of being someone with a narrow view of the world, just like a frog in a well,” she wrote.
Her other writings include: Daughter-in-law Entering the Door; Mother-in-law’s Village: Rural Industrialization and Change in Taiwan; Burning Melancholy, Paiwan Nose and Mouth Flutes; and Cultural Performances and Taiwan Indigenous Peoples.
Taiwanese author Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) wrote on Facebook that he and Hu were classmates at NTU.
Hu was known for being a serious and rigorous student, Chen said, adding that her death was “unacceptable.”
Choreographer Ping Heng (平珩), who did field work with Hu, wrote on Facebook that Hu introduced her to the world of ethnography.
Ping said she could never keep up with Hu’s vitality and her overflowing enthusiasm for doing anthropological fieldwork.
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