Aboriginal Village Tour

One day back from our four day tour we went on another half day tour to Wulai township just south of Taipei. Thomas was once again our tour guide and Hoppy and Lorraine were once again with us.

While in the township, we took pictures of the beautiful waterfall, enjoyed trying sticky rice cooked in Bamboo, talk a ride on a trolley, and saw a dance performance by young aborigines from a nearby village.

Well, the dance show was certainly interesting. Not sure how much it catered to tourism, stereotypes, and what a sinocentric audience would have wanted to see, or to what extent it did accurately reflect Atayal (the local aboriginal nation) culture. I remember taking a class at Yale called "Asian Environments and Frontiers" where I read a book called Taiwan's Imagined Geography which documented Han Chinese perceptions of Taiwan's geography and people over several centuries. In addition to the theft of indigenous land, forced assimilation, and massacres, the Qing Dynasty left its mark on how Taiwan's natives were viewed. A certain type of sexual objectivity and dehumanization remains from that era in how aborigines are portrayed and treated in Taiwan. Pretty aboriginal girls (almost always in the same striped red garb despite often being from different aboriginal nations) stand in front of Han vendors trying to market "authentic" goods in places like Keelung. Near Sun Moon Lake, Han merchants market owl paraphernalia (owl's were traditionally an important spiritual animal to the Thao people) near impoverished aboriginal reservations.

I was skeptical of the dance show's highlights of hunting dances and dances related to head hunting (these people mostly farmed and have been Catholic since the 1600's). Yes, maybe head hunting did occur, but its emphasis seems geared to impress Han tourists, both Taiwanese and from mainland China. Some Han Chinese once smoked opium, were eunuchs, and bound their feet. But if in America, I dressed many modern Han Chinese in Qing Dynasty garb and had them showcase these aspects of Chinese history and culture, I'd probably face a lawsuit. No mention anywhere is made of the four hundred years of displacement, murder, and slavery that have characterized aboriginal Taiwan's interaction with the rest of the world. For half a millennium the great powers of the world have colonized and exploited Taiwan's people and resources, and for half a millennium, the people have fought back. Even the might of the Qing Empire was unable to conquer the mountain highlands along the spine of Taiwan. Imperial Japan at the height of its power only consolidated their control in the central mountains during the 1930's. In the late 1800s, Japanese and American ships would sometimes crash on the southern and eastern coasts of the island. Local indigenous people who had had bad experiences with outsiders often killed the survivors of the shipwrecks. In the late 1860's, the American government retaliated by sending hundreds of marines to crush the aborigines. The expedition failed and American marines fled the island. Later Japan would launch an invasion on similar pretexts, bringing thousands of armed troops, most of whom died of disease.

Perhaps the mainland tourists swarming tourist attractions throughout Taiwan could benefit from some real education about Taiwan's history, aboriginal culture, and meeting with real aboriginal people. Then they wouldn't have the gall to deny history, genocide, and reality by claiming "Taiwan is and has always been a part of China". Such a statement, often touted by Chinese elites, the Chinese government, and the mis-educated common people of China, denies the fact that for most of China's five thousand years history, Taiwan was not a part of China.

Trying fermented millet wine and seeing much of the southern suburbs of Taipei were some of the other highlights of the Wulai trip.

Pictures:

Thao Reservation

Memorial for the 1999 earthquake made from an old bulldozer painted with Thao decorations.

Me in Wulai, posing in front of a statue of an Ayatal king (2x).

My family + 2 Aussies in front of Wulai waterfall.