Tâi-oân Bó-gí Liân-bêng

Marching for Your Mother Tongue

Do you know your own ancestors and their cultures and languages

voicesintheclouds.com A young man discovers his Tayal heritage and starts a non-profit organization to preserve and promote it.

Voices in the Clouds (trailer) from Aaron Hose on Vimeo.

Voices in the Clouds (trailer 2) from Chris Bremer on Vimeo.

"A lot of mothers would teach their kids their native language but she made a concerted effort to shield us from her culture..."

Saving Austronesian Languages and Cultures

Linguist Races to Save Aboriginal Languages in Taiwan, Birthplace of a Major Language Family

Src: AP January 9, 2013

DAKANUA, Taiwan – Her eyes lit bright with concentration, Taiwanese linguist Sung Li-may leans in expectantly as one of the planet's last 10 speakers of the Kanakanavu language shares his hopes for the future.

"I am already very old," says 80-year-old Mu'u Ka'angena, a leathery faced man with a tough, sinewy body and deeply veined hands. A light rain falls onto the thatched roof of the communal bamboo hut, and smoke from a dying fire drifts lazily up the walls, wafting over deer antlers, boar jawbones and ceremonial swords that decorate the interior like trophies from a forgotten time.

"Every day I think: Can our language be passed down to the next generation? It is the deepest wish in my heart that it can be."

Kanakanavu, Sung says, has a lot more going for it than just its intrinsic value. It belongs to the same language family that experts believe spread from Taiwan 4,000 years ago, giving birth to languages spoken today by 400 million people in an arc extending from Easter Island off South America to the African island of Madagascar. "Taiwan is where it all starts," says archaeologist Peter Bellwood, who with linguist Robert Blust developed the now widely accepted theory that people from Taiwan leveraged superior navigation skills to spread their Austronesian language far and wide. At least four of Taiwan's 14 government-recognized aboriginal languages are still spoken by thousands of people, but a race is on to save the others from extinction. The youngest good speaker of Kanakanavu, also known as Southern Tsou, is 60, and the next youngest, 73.

"To survive a language has to be spoken," Sung said. "And with this one it isn't happening."

It's a story repeated in the remote corners of the earth, as younger generations look to the dominant language for economic survival and advancement, whether it be English or, in Taiwan's case, Chinese. Aboriginals account for only 2 percent of the Taiwanese population of 23 million. Many young people are leaving Dakanua, a picturesque village in the south that is home to the Kanakanavu language, to work in the island's cities.

Sung is clearly revered by Dakanua's tiny cadre of Kanakanavu speakers, who are happy to spend long hours going over their language with her and a small group of graduate students she brings to the village from National Taiwan University in Taipei. On a recent Saturday afternoon, they sat outside a well-ordered cluster of whitewashed concrete buildings, painstakingly documenting the proper use of the imperative and the grammatical subtleties of concepts like "it could be that" or "it is possible that." In the background the bamboo and palm tree covered contours of Mt. Anguana protruded through a moving blanket of fog and mist, and a thin rain fell in the Nanzixian River valley below.

... Even many 40- and 50-year olds are incapable of mouthing anything more than a few simple phrases in their native tongue.

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Regarding their struggles including Typhoon Morakat

The San Francisco Symphony will perform legendary Taiwanese composer Tyzen Hsiao's An Angel from Formosa at their annual Lunar New Year concert on Feb 2. Click here to find tickets. It is unfortunate, though that the website calls it a "Chinese" New Year concert rather than a "Lunar" New Year concert. Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese probably do not take kindly to their lunar calendar new year celebration being called "Chinese."

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Following is a brief introduction written by Jeanette Yu, representative of the San Francisco Symphony and a member of the board of directors of the Tsunah Taiwan Culture and Education Foundation.

Tyzen Hsiao, born in Taiwan’s southern port city of Kaohsiung in 1938, has been a figurehead in the Taiwanese musical community as a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher since the late 1960s. His compositions are strongly associated with the Taiwanese cultural movement that revitalized the country’s literary and performing arts in the 1970s and 1980s, and which restored a national pride in traditions and history.

An Angel from Formosa is on many levels a work of remembrance. The piece evokes a sense of the quiet, rural life in Hsiao’s homeland of Taiwan (historically called Formosa, from the Portuguese "Ilha Formosa," meaning "Beautiful Island")—a simple opening melody is warmed by the slow, breathtaking rise of a solitary flute, lifted by the oboe as if by a gust of wind over Taiwan’s idyllic rural landscape, embraced and strengthened by a sea of undulating strings, and finally embodied in an achingly lush brass solo. For its pure melody without pretentious effect, brilliant orchestral colors, and honest emotion, Tyzen Hsiao’s An Angel from Formosa has drawn numerous comparisons to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, one of the most popular of twentieth-century orchestral works. The composer dedicated An Angel from Formosa to the late Taiwanese pianist Wen-wan Chen (陳文婉), who championed and performed Tyzen Hsiao’s works on the international stage. Full of pathos, the piece closes with the strumming of the harp, an angelic final call for remembrance." --- Jeanette Yu

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UPDATE: The latest press release says "13th Annual Lunar New Year Concert." However, its own webpage title and everything linked from it still says "Chinese" New Year.

Mr. Ma, People on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are NOT all ethnic Chinese.

From the Taiwan Democracy Movement blog:

President of ROC in Exile -- Ma's new years speech: "The people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are all ethnic Chinese..."

Why do the Austronesians of Taiwan still vote for the KMT?

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We could add, that unless the Austronesian peoples begin to do something about their children going to Chinese language schools, in 50 or 100 years, the Austronesian cultures will be virtually obliterated. This is the intent of the ROC government education policy. One hour a week of language class in a mother tongue is not enough. It is enough to lull people into complacency while their language and culture dies.

If you are in Taipei, visit the National Taiwan University Library. There is one room that is supposed to be for Austronesian / Aboriginal cultures and languages. Almost all the books are in Mandarin. The children's books that tell traditional stories from Taiwan's Austronesian peoples are also in Mandarin. They did not even bother to try to write the Austronesian language of the story alongside the Mandarin. When there is some Austronesian language included, it is often included as a simple "gloss" for sounds, but without any order that would show the Romanization to be true written language -- that is, capitalization and punctuation of sentences.

P.S. Also please remember that even the Hakka and the Hoklo "Taiwanese" speakers of Taiwan are ethnically mixed, that is, they have both Austronesian and Chinese ancestry with a little Dutch thrown in.

Rapacious KMT Policy: Further examples of threats to Taiwan's wilds and rural lands

What can such a mistress do but attempt to maintain some point of attractiveness to lessen the blows of abuse?

When people in power in a nation do not have a close love and identity with that nation, they will tend to destroy it. The Japanese occupation of Korea resulted in vast wholesale exploitation of Korean lands and resources, in effect stripping Korea bare for the war effort. Taiwan escaped such destruction because at that moment in history when its west coast was ceded to Japan by the Manchurian Empire, Japan wanted a colony to hold up to the Western colonial powers to show how it was on equal footing. So Taiwan was carefully managed and treated like a jewel of the Japanese empire. (However the Taiwanese people were still discriminated against and treated like second-class citizens.)

Not so for Taiwan under the fascist Leninist regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party, the KMT. Treated like Korea, it was stripped bare for the war effort. Paradoxically, the KMT regime was so corrupt that it quickly lost the war in China before it could completely destroy Taiwan. Left only with Taiwan, itself, the KMT was forced to somewhat identify with this land. They tried to remake it into an image of their own lost homeland. Even though making Taiwan a shabby copy of other lovers, the KMT dictators did want to keep some pretty places (and faces) to play.

Dictators also want power and money. And they need henchmen for that. And the henchmen also need power and money so that their loyalty to the dictator will be unshakeable. It was not enough to outright steal Taiwanese companies, businesses and factories that had been family owned for generations. It was not enough to steal Taiwanese retirement savings by the "quantitative easing" of the time: damn the inflation, print money full speed ahead. The KMT also went after poor farmers. So began the long arrangement of robbing farmers of their lands, rezoning them to become commercial property and making KMT cronies hefty profits.

Though it has not yet had a legislature that identifies with Taiwan, in the 1990's, finally Taiwan had a president who identified with Taiwan. And for another eight years until 2008, Taiwan had a imperfect reprieve of sorts from the rapacious lust for power and money.

But ever since the KMT won back the presidency, Taiwan has again become simply a resource to be exploited, a mistress to be used and then thrown out on the street when its usefulness and beauty have been completely degraded. What can such a mistress do but attempt to maintain some point of attractiveness to lessen the blows of abuse?

Can the Taiwanese people ever get the KMT to actually identify with Taiwan? Will there ever be a wedding ring rather than an offer of a pittance for prostitution and a swift kick out the door once an immediate lust is slaked?

Even an article such as this one can do little to shame the KMT into its obligations as an entity living off the people of Taiwan.

Following are some threats of new bruising and beatings on Taiwan that cannot be covered by clothing:

Forced takeover of Hakka farmers' lands in Chudong.

Forced takeover threats to farmers' lands in Tamsui.

Forced urbanization from Haulien to Taidong

A Modern Day Beatrix Potter of land preservation knows that "beauty is worth preserving."

If you have seen the movie, Miss Potter, you will realize that after her phenomenal success in publishing children's books, Beatrix Potter used her wealth to buy up large tracts of farms in Cumbria (the Lake District) of northwest England in order to preserve them from developers who were buying the farms to subdivide them. She donated thousands of acres to a land trust to preserve them as working farms rather than allowing them to be developed. Often, the farmers and former owners were hired on as land and farm managers.

The natural beauty of Cumbria

Unfortunately, Taiwan has not had a wealthy person or trust with such a vision. For decades, the KMT dictatorship government used farm land as a cash cow by forcing farmers to sell their land at low prices and then when cronies bought the land, the government rezoned it for commercial or residential, thus allowing KMT government officials and cronies to make enormous profits on the deals.

I-Lan County looking southwest from Jī-ket (Er-jie)

Even now, when such deals are more scrutinized, the destruction of indiscriminate land urbanization continues. For example, in I-lan County, farmland diminishes rapidly as wealthy people buy it for their weekend residences. Even with land restrictions, they will buy a plot, build a small building that meets the land use restrictions, get a government inspector to come and issue the permit for that small building. Then after all the paperwork is done, they will build a massive add-on to the building that triples or quadruples the size, thus ending up with mansion that would never have been originally allowed on the land zoned for farming.

An encouraging contrast can be found in a Taiwan News report of one man who used his wealth and corporate earnings for land preservation. Fortunately his vision also includes the preservation of tree species and mountain and hillsides from erosion and mudslides. Unfortunately, no one else has followed his example and done similar things in the flatlands which developers so hungrily crave in hopes of massive profits. Even with the so much real estate empty in Taipei, developers continue to build in the hopes that one day they will get rich Chinese to come into Taiwan to buy their expensively priced apartments. No concern meanwhile has been shown for Taiwanese who are increasingly squeezed out of these artificially inflated real estate prices. Furthermore, many in Taiwan seemed more concerned for short term profits rather than the long-term health and sovereignty of Taiwan.

But for now, Taiwanese can be thankful for men like Lai Pei-yuan.

Following is the Taiwan News article:

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Lai-sang – Taiwan’s “King of the Forest" Taiwan News, Staff Reporter 2012-11-22 10:30 AM

Lai Pei-yuan’s interest in trees started out simply enough. Originally engaged in a shipping firm operated by his family, he happened at one time to buy a modest piece of land from a friend. As things happened, he gradually became attached to the land and started acquiring more parcels in the Da-xue-shan (Big Snow Mountain) area of central Taiwan. Now 26 years after he acquired his first patch of soil he has spent billions of NT dollars acquiring public land for orchards and forests and finds himself bearing the title of “King of the Trees” and dubbed “Lai-sang” – a combination of his surname Lai and the Chinese name for Tarzan – by his friends and associates.

"He adds that the numbers don’t mean anything to him – meaning that how much he has spent acquiring the land and planting trees is not important. He says the most important thing is that he has been able to do all this for the good of the people of Taiwan."

As Lai’s son Lai Chien-chung tells it, the elder Lai’s family – including himself – were a little leery of Lai’s motives in taking up forestry and fruit farming, but eventually they came around and now offer their full support for his efforts to grow trees and fruit. Lai Chien-chung says that in the beginning his father would purchase fruit orchards, then pare them back and plant various species of trees including Taiwan camphor, Taiwan incense cedar and black pines. After 26 years of buying land and re-planting hillsides Lai Pei-yuan estimates that he has planted over 200,000 trees and converted nearly 100 hectares of orchards into lush forests.

While Lai’s family members were not quite sure of their father’s motives in the beginning, they still were willing to get their hands dirty and could often be found digging up grass and planting saplings on the sides of mountains. They also learned to love the land, and Lai Chien-chung took the initiative in planting coffee trees among the other species of trees.

Lai-sang’s motive in planting saplings was not so that he could harvest the grown trees for lumber. He simply wanted to cover barren hillsides with healthy, green forests. Everyone around him was curious as to what kind of fool he might be, giving up his home and family to go off into the mountains by himself and plant trees.

For the first few years after Lai bought his first parcels of land he would set off early in the morning with a couple of helpers to prepare the soil, lay down water pipes and plant trees, often coming home long after the sun had gone down behind the mountains. Luckily his family was very understanding and accommodating as he paid out funds for what many saw as useless tracts of wilderness. And Lai’s stubborn perseverance eventually moved the rest of the family to pitch in and join him in the mountains, planting trees and pulling up unwanted plants and weeds on the slopes.

Lai continued acquiring land and planting trees and now claims to have more than 200,000 trees on his property. He estimates that the total cost of acquiring the orchards and land, purchasing saplings for planting and paying workers to assist in working the land at nearly NT$1.5 billion.

The chairman of Ta-ay Freight and Cloud Road International Co., Ltd., Lai Pei-yuan always longed to go into the mountains as a young man, and it was in the mountainous area of central Taiwan that he finally came upon his ‘heaven on earth’. He admits that in the beginning he was largely ignorant of environmental protection. For some time he entertained the idea of reclaiming land to grow alpine vegetables, but after witnessing time and again how Taiwan's mountains and forests were being ravaged by the construction of roads and planting of orchards with their attendant need for pesticides that were often misused he began to revamp his view of the mountains and forests. He saw how the torrential rains brought by typhoons would trigger mudslides and flooding and realized that what this little place called Taiwan needed was the concept of "planting trees and returning to Nature".

Over the years Lai has never taken advantages of subsidies offered by the government for forestation efforts. Instead he has lavished his attention on each of his precious trees, taking good care of them without any need for pesticides or other chemicals. He claims a survival rate of 98% for his trees and points out that officers from the Forestry Bureau often turn to him for advice on techniques for planting trees. read more...