Jez's Blog

1. What do you think about Atyal’s facial tattoo? Do you have tattoo culture in your country? If yes, what are those differences between two cultures.
I think Atyal's facial tattoo is really symbolic to their culture. Although it is painful and inerasable, it's still one of the most marvelous thing that strongly symbolizes the Atyal culture. However, most of the Atyal people don't get their traditional facial tattoo anymore, but I belief that the elders of the Atyal will still hold fast to this tradition as long as possible, until the end of their life. Yes, there is tattoo culture in my country, Taiwan. In fact, Atyal is the aboriginal tribe in Taiwan which has tattoo culture. Other than that, some people in Taiwan also get tattoos, but it is not a tradition nor part of the culture, it's only for fun and fashion(?).

2. Saisiyat people choose their surnames from plants, animals and natural phenomena. In your country, do you think a person’s surname has special meaning which can reflect your own culture and why?
Again, Saisiyat is one of the aboriginal tribes in my country, Taiwan. Other than Saisiyat people, I don't think people in Taiwan, in general, chose their surnames from plants, animals and natural phenomena. The surnames of general people in Taiwan are mostly passed down from their ancestors, mostly from the main land China I suppose. However, I know that people do chose certain words in their first name. For instance, the word '麗' represents 'beautiful', therefore you might see this word in a girl's first name, blessing the girl to grow into a beautiful woman.

3. Lily is a symbol of RuKai. In your country, what’s your national flower and what it means.
Plum Blossom is the national flower of Taiwan. Plum Blossoms bloom in the winter, which represents that Taiwanese people are as strong as Plum Blossoms, we stay strong in harsh external conditions, and the worse the external conditions are, the strong we become, like Plum Blossoms, the cooler the weather is, more beautiful the flowers of plum Blossoms will be.

4. On Beian’s traditional weddings, you can see a prospective bride climbing a giant swing. And tribesmen swing her until the swing sails like kites. In your country, do you have any special ceremonies that are held on weddings? Please explain it.
In a traditional wedding of my country, people celebrate it by giving a meal to friends and relatives. The bride and the groom will drink in honer to each table of guests. Then these guests will give the bride and the groom red envelopes with money in them. Also, if the wedding is really really traditional, the bride and the groom would pray 3 times before they become husband and wife. The first pray is to the universe (god), second is to their parents, and the third is to each other.

After watching the video Spirits of Orchid Island, here are some following questions with their answers, based on what the video was about:


(1) Please indicate the importance of the ocean to Tao.
The ocean seems to be a really important role in Tao's life. Tao lives on a island, which obviously is surrounded by the ocean. Therefore, the very first thing that Tao people have to learn, is how to get along with the ocean, especially for Tao men, they've already been playing in the ocean as if it's their playground since they were little. The ocean provides food resources, in which it basically provides sea foods, for Tao people.

(2) It takes a lot of time for Tao people to build a boat. How do Tao people make a boat? Do you think it is worthy or it wastes time? Why?
Tao people make their boats with woods on the island. First, they chopped down the tree that they think has the most suitable wood for their boat. And then they gradually shape and smoothed each piece of the boat with an axe. Finally, they combine all the pieces of the boat together. By only looking at the steps of making a Tao boat might seem quite easy, but it actually takes a lot of effort. And by the way, one thing about making one of these boats has quite impressed me, which is that all the pieces of the boat are joined together with wooden needles, the boat is actually made up with absolutely no metal needles in it!
I think it's a definitely worthy for Tao people to make these Tao boats because this is one of the most symbolic thing that represents the Tao culture.

(3) Explain the boat launching ceremony.
According to the Tao tradition, before a boat launches, a boat launching ceremony will be held. In the ceremony, Tao men toss the new boat, with its sailor, into the air, to symbolize how the new boat will break out the waves as it sails on the ocean. Also, all the Tao males, including little Tao boys, will dance around the new boat, acting as if they are in great anger, in order to drive the evil spirit away from the new boat(?).

(4) Explain the flying fish calling ceremony.
The flying fish calling ceremony is the biggest event that the Tao held in once a year. Tao people belief that the flying fish is the fish from the heaven, its God's fish. During this ceremony, Tao people will kill a piglet, then each person stain their finger with the blood of the piglet, and then everyone dip their fingers, with blood, into the sea water on the sea shore. By doing this, the flying fish will smell the blood and come nearer to the shore, and so its easier for the Tao fishermen to fish them. The Tao fishermen also use fire to lure flying fish. Some flying fish that are caught, were used to be the bait for fishing bigger fish. However, the rest of flying fish that are caught, have to be all eaten by the next day.

(5) How do Tao people live in harmony with the natural environment?
Tao people are not just living in the nature, they are also protecting it. For instance, they may have been chopping down trees to make their boats and houses..etc, but they were also planting trees in the forests. They also have this rule of not cutting too many trees from a certain place, in order to remain the forest. Moreover, Tao people do not normally kill other animals, not even snakes.

(6) The houses Tao people build are so special. Please compare their houses to those houses in your own country.
The reason why the houses that Tao people build are so special, is because that they are located on a island where there's not much natural barriers to block strong typhoons. Therefore, their house were built underground, to avoid the damage from strong typhoons. On the other hand, the buildings in the country where I'm from, Taiwan, is totally different then the Tao buildings. Although strong typhoons invade us sometimes as well, but because of the natural barrier of Central Mountain Region, we do not have to build our buildings under ground. And also, there is variety of materials to build the buildings in Taiwan, which most of them are quite preventable for typhoons.

(7) Tao people view eating a seasnake as a taboo because it lowers social status. In your own culture, do you have any eating taboos? Do you believe in it? Why?
I don't think there's really an eating taboos in my own culture. Perhaps eating dogs? Well, if eating dogs is really an eating taboo because it lowers our social status, I think I'll belief it because dogs are just like our friends, and high class people do not eat their friends!!

(8) So far only one big handmade boat is kept in Tao tribe because of modernization. Thus, some Tao people try to preserve their art culture. Please describe a vanishing art culture in your country that you would like to preserve.
Paper umbrella is a vanishing artifact in Taiwanese culture. Young people do not usually appreciate the beauty of these paper umbrellas, they might think they are meretricious. However, I think young people should learn more about these paper umbrellas, in order to appreciate them and actually wanting to preserve them.



- http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/20tourism.html
[Picture of Tao hand made boats. Copied by Jez. 26th of Nov. 2008]