Indigenous Songs Revitalization

Chingchuan 清泉 Church Wufeng Hsinchu
Built in 1955

The post is inspired by a short Tokyo trip where I came across indigenous dance and songs details produced in 1928 and 1929 respectively. See HERE.

Indigenous revitalizations today appear less to do with restore and revive but more with cultural creatives under indigenous interpretations and (sometimes unsubstantiated) hypothetical claims.

Good news for contemporary indigenous peoples for building identity and freedom to express.

Bad news for researchers whose focus is on finding out truth - you may never find truths. HERE, HERE for example.

1956 林衡立 Lin Hen-Li

1986 -1993 李壬癸 Paul Li / 胡台麗 Hu Tai-li

2020 paSta'ay Intellectual Property Law Pass

In 1956 林衡立 Lin Hen-Li published a report "THE SONGS OF THE PAS-TAAI" for which he wrote (1956:38) the difficulties of producing the report - Most lyrics are illegible, ambiguous. Saisiyat locals interpretations are largely vague and absurd .. highly dubious .. impossible to use ....

Who is 林衡立 Lin Hen-Li?

From the historical Banqiao Lin Family, he is brother of Historian 林衡道Hengdao Lin (see HERE about 'a-tok-á' John Dodd) and uncle of 林開世 Kai-shyh Lin Director of the Museum of Anthropology ，National Taiwan University.

(Lin is also the author of "The Analyses Of The Myth Of Shooting Suns" (1962))

Paul Li and Hu Tai-Li are both well-known.

Under current indigenous language revitalization project - the standard practice/process appears for Paul Li to supply a list of words and sounds for concerned (linguist) researchers to build on more and more words. Results are achieved by hypothetical analysis and assumptions. Because how do you restore/revive something that is lost otherwise?

50 years' paSta'ay song development results in a set of complete, contemporary, and comprehensive songs with lyrics and underlying meanings further and further away from 1930s origin.

50 years' choice between Beads 珠/朱 and Beans 豆/趙 Family

Interpreting these 1930s lyrics are based on SOUNDS - SOUNDS with no meanings, sounds that are vague, and incomplete.

What I found quite interesting is Hu's 1983 overthrowing Lin's 1956 findings. And Hu's criticism of Lin's using Beans 豆/趙 (Zhao) data and oral accounts instead of Beads 珠/朱's (Zhu) as she did 30 years later.

Hu appeared convinced Lin did not do his job properly (incompetent in other word). And Lin's results were highly questionable because he used the data from Zhao and Zhao's were unreliable.

There is a noticeable (strong) contrast between Lin and Hu's personable background which understandably could have, might have affected their understanding and interpreting about a set of 'sounds' passed down during Japanese colonial around 1930s.

Hu's father was the first person in the Chinese-speaking world to translate The Book of Mormon. Hu parents were from China who came to Taiwan after 1947.

Lin, a historical Taiwanese family, home of historian, architect, and anthropologist.

Interpreting these lyrics are based on SOUNDS - SOUNDS have no meanings, sounds that are vague, and incomplete.

It works like this - using my 'translation' of 1928 indigenous (Atayal) song as an EXAMPLE:

aro - aro appears on several occasion in Hu and Zhu's lyrics. Interpreted as persimmon 柿 first of all - which is LATIN. ie Latin scientific name.

Also interpreted as 'ritual' - probably because 'Shi' 祀 sounds like 柿. There is no science, no logic to Hu and Zhu's interpretations in this respect, at least I don't see it - I see a result based on hypothetical and contemporary dictionary.

wan - became 雷女 Thunder deity . In fact, Hu's arguments that Lin's ta'ai is 'outdated' and that ta'ai should be interpreted as wan Thunder deity the origin of swastika according to the Zhu's is quite an entertaining read.

雷女 Thunder deity, incidentally, is a common deity in many culture including Chinese/Hakka/Taiwanese.

ta/ya/ai - could have been translated into ta'ay (which incidentally is where ta'ay 大隘 the short people lived. Contemporary indigenous scholars denied it. But the historical link is unquestionable. (洪敏麟 mentioned about the ta'ay 大隘 etymology.). Basically, as an example, ta/ai/ya could be developed into a variety of meanings where and how Zhu wanted it to be.

ko sound - worked in the similar way. a ko sound could have been translated into a woman, a female half of the outdated (according to Hu) ta'ay. koko means grandma in Saisiyat.

Other interpretations using contemporary LOANWORDS are such as -

rai - 蓬萊 Penglai/ aka Horai (Japanese)

ba - 肉 Hokkien

ki - 赤楊 /木 Borrowed from Japanese

ma-aw - mountain pepper - Chinese 木姜 (which the name unlikely existed before 1950s in indigenous communities. To note)

tan - 日張 (refers to the Chinese boy 張 who became Saisiyat leader)

WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IN 1930's TAIWAN

From the reading materials I can find online - I agree with Lin's more than I do with Hu's. Lin was at least truthful that the original Saisiyat interpretation based on incomplete set of data was close to absurd and impossible to use. He did all he could based on his knowledge, observations and experiences with indigenous peoples of Taiwan during his historian career.

Hu (in promoting Zhu's) are hypothetical, contemporary and further away from what could have happened in 1930's Taiwan.

For example - 楓. Formosan sweet gum tree. Lin interpreted a sound into 楓香. While Hu wrote Zu disagreed.

It appeared in the 2000 song Formosan sweet gum (Lin's) was used - that would have been the case in 1930s in my opinion due to the tree's economic value Japanese cultivated in Taiwan (including log-mushroom farming)

Since Hu and Zhu's interpretations are done largely in contemporary style, frequent liberal assumption and hypotheses, heavy use of loanwords - one can not turn back and criticize Lin's for lacking research originality.

Because in my opinion -

Lin's result is a lot closer to facts and truths, it serves better in understanding indigenous history and what could have happened in 1930s.

Hu's 1990 s and Zhu's comprehensive 2000s result serves better in seeking contemporary indigenous identity and understanding fusion culture.