Taiwan culture encounters transformation

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

 

Amis tribe, and the costume is a reflection of a married woman.

OTHER people occupying Taiwan are transforming its culture and tradition, according to the Director General for Indigenous People Cultural Development Centre, Council of Indigenous People in Taiwan.

Mr Tseng Chih Yung said their culture has changed.

He said, “The indigenous people living in Taiwan throughout the years other people came and occupied Taiwan and have transformed their culture a lot.

“Especially the ritual we used to do was forbidden, some of the festival not allowed and the clothing have changed.

“They started to learn how to write and read instead of writing songs and tattoos, and yes our culture been lost that’s why we try to bring it back to younger generations.”

With the plight of this transition, Yung said the Taiwan government has helped a lot in trying to revive their culture which was lost.

“Over the past 10 or 20 years, our government has helped us a lot to restore our culture and tradition working together with the villager.”

This is a costume reflecting the Paiwan tribe.

Meanwhile, the costume Naru Wan dancing group are wearing comes from the Paiwan tribe, people living on the mountains and Amis tribe, people live on the coastal area.

Some their activities are similar to Solomon Islands indigenous.

However, for the Paiwan tribe its costumes are designed with bit of colorful design which has been existed for many years and it has been passing down to generations.

The costume shows status of a person particularly chief and only chief can wear such, and the ordinary people their costume is not fancy but very simple.

Chief can only wear the costume only during festivals and each design on the costume presenting a traditional story.

Amis tribe—mostly is people live by coastal and its colorful red and decorated linen reflects their traditions.

The design with blue means a married woman and red colored designed means single woman.

Girls from the Amis tribe wearin a colorful costume meaning a single girls. Photo by Lynton Aaron Filia

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