Known for its historic mountain railway and misty forests, Alishan (阿里山) is now being introduced to global audiences through sound, as local authorities share recordings of its natural and cultural landscapes on an online platform.
People tend to overlook background sounds and soundscapes, but listening can be more powerful than sight in sparking the imagination, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) told an event in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The agency held the activity to present a yearlong sound recording project featuring 45 locations along the century-old Alishan Forest Railway, a major tourist attraction known for its spiral tracks and Z-shaped climbs through high-altitude mountain slopes.
"The project is not only a showcase of technical skill and artistic expression, but also a profound exploration of human perception, cultural depth and connection to the local land," said Wu Tsan-cheng (吳燦政), an artist commissioned by the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office to create the sound recordings.
From the metallic sounds of railway maintenance crews to the footsteps of early-morning hikers, birds chirping, insects buzzing and the wide variety of wildlife and natural sounds, the project captured the unique soundscape of the Alishan region, the participants said.
The hundreds of audio clips, each linked to a map showing where the sounds were recorded, have now been uploaded to Radio Aporee, a large international platform hosting field recordings from around the world, the agency said.
The project built on a local oral history program conducted from 2020 to 2023, in which 35 local elders shared stories about their communities, aimed at providing the public and researchers with additional ways to explore the region, the agency said in a news release.
The Alishan Forest Railway — which includes the main Alishan line and two tourist lines — and its stations suffered repeated damage from earthquakes and typhoons, including the 921 earthquake and Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
After years of repairs, the main line between Chiayi and Alishan fully reopened on July 6 last year.
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