I have been watching Manpuku on Netflix for several months now - I picked up episodes on an irregular basis and I have not finished. 'Taiwan Travelogue'  publishing success in May, however, made me re-think about the drama from an anthropological angle -  fictional Japanese writer Aoyama's 1938 visit to Taiwan.  Manpuku era begins at late 1930s. It's interesting and before I forget - here is a list of what I consider worth-noting.  'Chow Chow from China' was shown on one  Manpuku scene where Chow Chow the ancient dog from northern China was mentioned. 1. The Chow-Chow and its significant presence in indigenous history  Georgius Candidius recorded  'ethatao' 'ayam mamiang' , both associated with 'long white-haired dogs' (according to translated 17th Dutch document). "Georgius Candidius (1597 – 30 April 1647) was a Dutch Reformed Church missionary to Dutch Formosa from 1627 to 1637.  He was the first missionary to be stationed ...

Papua Tanah Damai translates from Indonesian to "Papua, Land of Peace." In the context of Austronesian languages, tanah means "land," "earth," or "soil" . It traces back to the Proto-Malayic word *tanah , which evolved from the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tanəq .  In Malay and Indonesian , damai means "peace" or "tranquility". It traces back to the Proto-Austronesian word damay , meaning "peace, empathy, or harmony". 1. Root word for peanut  land, soil, earth, ground - 土. 土豆 (peanut) These two set of analysis are questionable (under-analysed), especially the first one - loanwords diversity, not grammatical development.  Siraya revitalization (K.A. Adelaar) 2. Possible linguistic connection - people of the land, the soil. #tau - IN - 人- people (1930s Japanese report） Slit Drum (Austronesian)  - which I saw almost on a daily basis during the entire trip in Java Indonesia (a variety of sizes).  I suspect a connecti...

  Gudeg  (translate to " to stir") originates from the Javanese term hangudeg. I picked up a few (proto) Malayo-Polynesian words from a week's trip to Indonesia - their presence is on daily basis and in everyday life.  1.   nasi (cooked rice)  ayam (chicken)   tracing back from the Malayic *hayam to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qayam . 2. arang (charcol) besi (frying) 3. batu (stone) descendants patu, wato, vato, watu etc at British Museum London Japanese identified batu IN linguistic source multiple times in 1930s  4. kapak (axe) 5. mata (eyes) uang (money) - currency 貨幣 6.  n angka   (jackfruit) 7.  kacang (peanut) 8. masak (to cook) 9. makanan (to eat) wadah (container) 10.  padi (rice) ani ani (cutting knife) 11. benih (seeds) kecil (small) 12. piring (dish) 13. dandang (steamer) 14. kalung (necklace) 15. cetakan ( chintz originating in 15th-century India) 16. pisang (banana) 17. bubur (porridge/...