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Showing posts from February, 2021

Anthropology Note 27 - Hakka White-Jade-Radish Couplet (an example)

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(This is NOTE 27 of the main ongoing Anthropology Notes  HERE .) Hakka White-Jade-Radish is named not only for its relatively small (and slim) size like delicate jade, but also a couplet often found at a ' 土地龍神 Dragon Lord of Soil and Ground' Hakka clan residence altar.  I was taken to one in Wugoushui  五溝水 Hakka community, Wanluan Township  萬巒鄉 , Pintung County.  The Hakka household is Wu, a famous brick kiln family. The Wus have been known for producing high quality bricks and tiles for over a century.  The couplet from right to left 土中生白玉  White Jade Born from Soil ' 土地龍神香座位 Dragon Lord of Soil and Ground' Incense Altar 地内出黃金  Gold Born from Ground

Anthropology Note 26 - Orchid Island Pigs gu'is (Borrowed Hokkien Word kuí-á 鬼神)

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(This is NOTE 26 of the main ongoing Anthropology Notes  HERE .) According to 'Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan' in THIS article -    Tao people  達悟族人  ( an  Austronesian ethnic group  native to the tiny outlying  Orchid Island  of  Taiwan ) called their Native Lanyu pigs  蘭嶼豬  'gu'is'. 'Gu'is' - borrowed from a  Hokkien word   kuí-á (   kuí) 鬼神 meaning  supernatural/spirits/ghosts and gods - explains  Tao are in awe of Lanyu pig's supernatural power and fearsome fixed stare. Native pigs return to Orchid Island after 40-year captive breeding program (2021 development) Pigs (Wild boars) thick bristles is called 剛鬣 gāng liè (Source - Three Consecrations 三獻 rites , Book of Rites (Liji 禮記) @476 BC) - see our TOPICS article Feeding the Departed. August 29 2023  Back in 1897 , two years after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, anthropologist Ryuzo Torii became the first Japanese person to land on Lanyu (called Koto-sho at the time) . He heard

George Leslie Mackay. POJ Scripts. Vintage Photos

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Sin-Tiam Church (Photo is the rebuilt in 1885) A church of rich historical value Destroyed by Monga (Wanhua) mobs during Sino-French war, rebuilt in 1885, destroyed by typhoon later in 1924. (Source Leslie Noble Oct 2020) (Sin-Tiam/Xindian 新店) 'Dadaocheng Presbyterian Church' (Ganzhou Street  甘州街 ) Identified by  Li Chunsheng 李春生  descendant (Source Leslie Noble Oct 2020) Leslie Noble, granddaughter of Nellie Mackay, forwarded me in October 2020 a bunch of photos and hand scripts kept in the homes of Mackay descendants in Canada. (Source Leslie Noble Oct 2020) Leslie thinks Margaret Noble was her grandfather's (Thomas Noble) sister whom she met only once as a kid in the 60s. The connection (identity) between Margaret Mackay (one of the Mackay Sisters) and Margaret Noble, at this point and as far as myself is concerned, is unclear and unknown. But I could be missing or forgetting something. Looking through and in the meantime with unfailingly support from my historian