Celebration of Culture from Taiwan｜Wow! Taiwan

You're watching Wow! Taiwan. Welcome back to another episode. Yes, how are you?

I'm doing great, Patty, how are you? I'm very well, and today, I heard we're gonna, you know,

celebrate some festivals together. Yeah, something very Taiwanese, right? Yeah.

Oh.

Wow. So, you were singing… Which indigenous tribe are you from?

I'm from the Tsou indigenous tribe in Mt. Ali. The indigenous tribe, Tsou, in Mt. Ali. So, what were you singing? What kind of song is it?

This is a song which the elders would usually sing in the past when they were chatting.

When they were chatting? Yeah, they talked to each other by singing. So poetic. Really?

They even argued like this. Really? This is so romantic. You wouldn't tell they were arguing.

That's interesting. So, the "wow for today" you are bringing to us is… Andrew. So, it's…

Mayasvi, the festival of war. But you just decribed a very peaceful situation…

We were just having some peaceful… But, the war song… So, the invitation we have today

is the celebration of war? In a matter of speaking, yes.

It's called Mayasvi, a war festival. Well, let's find out a bit more on today's VCR.

Taiwan is an ethnically diverse country in East Asia on the northwestern Pacific,

and it consists of a number of islands with a combined area of about 36,000 square kilometers.

While the immigrant Han people take up the majority of its population, the indigenous people of Taiwan make up 2.4%,

with sixteen groups recognized by the government. As of August 2021,

there are 735 indigenous communities recognized by the government, with as many as 55 townships comprised

mostly of indigenous people. Due to different legends, traditions,

and ways of life among the different groups and subgroups of the indigenous people, there have been countless festivals, rituals,

and ceremonies developed and practised to date.

Therefore, when you go looking into the indigenous festival calendar published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples,

you'd probably be surprised to find that there are events on an almost weekly basis

all around the year. It is especially true every summer

in July and August. When it comes to traditional events

of the indigenous people, there are so many more than just singing and dancing.

With more than sixteen groups of indigenous people in Taiwan, there are so many different exciting legends,

stories, purposes, and also taboos regarding these events.

Let's get to know more about some of them today.

Wow. Wow… 16 tribes with their own traditions and cultures

and backgrounds and languages. Yes, and different festivals. Yes, exactly. So they have their own kind of calendar,

celebrations… Calendar, talking about calendar, festival calendar. This is just every single month.

Every single month. Is it all celebrating? Is it all that kind of like fiesta?

No, not all. There are sometimes when people…

When tribes will celebrate harvest, bring in the harvest. Harvest Festival, Amis.

But there's some, like, we just talked about the warring ceremony for the Tsou tribe,

and I think later we're going to be talking about another festival that's a lot more solemn.

These are actually… Some of them are actually rituals, and so they will have a more solemn tone