A Chiayi festival
In a bit of serendipity, the Chiayi City Government also held its 2016 Immigrants Festival, an event celebrating the many cultures of new residents, shortly after the APCD.
Noting that Taiwan is itself multicultural, Chiayi mayor Twu Shiing-jer remarked that the biggest difference between that city’s Aborigines, long-established ethnic Chinese residents, and new immigrants is merely when they arrived. Twu went on to state that ethnic integration is the path to social progress.
In a new twist, this year’s festival included both Aboriginal- and new-resident-themed activities, and highlighted another side of multiculturalism with an eye-catching exhibition of wedding attire from nine different countries, including Nepal, Ghana, Vietnam and Japan.
The Chiayi festival was arranged into morning and afternoon “sessions,” with the former focusing on the many cultures of new residents, and the latter consisting of a harvest celebration organized by Aborigines living in the city.
A total of 4,780 new residents currently reside in Chiayi City, and comprise 1.76% of its population of 270,000. The city’s annual Immigrants Festival is sure to help all of its residents, new and old alike, get to know one another. l
Indonesian caregiver Endri has been working in Taiwan for more than a decade. She chose to spend her day off at the APCD to reimmerse herself in the flavors of her homeland.