People who go rafting on the Hsiukuluan river should remember the splendid arch of Changhong Bridge at the end of their journey. Leaving the raft and taking to the bank, you follow a road along the river down towards where it flows out into the sea. Within 500 meters, on the right-hand side, you discover the village of Takangko.

Takangko is situated on the northern slope of the mouth of the Hsiukuluan. Going north another one and three kilometers respectively, you come to the Ami villages of Kangko and Shihtiping. The former has a close relationship with Takangko and is the source of the Ami culture that was accepted by its residents. Chingpu, to the south of the river, is also an Ami tribe but it is comparatively isolated by the barrier of the river. These four villages combine to make up Hualien County's Kangko Village.

An island isolated by the sea: Records show that, in 1883, there were six Han families totalling 33 people living in Takangko; they could have been some of the first peasants to have crossed over from the mainland to settle down and cultivate the land. Lin Long-chi, a resident of Takangko, says his father, Tseng Chin-lien, often heard the older generation saying their ancestors came from Fuchou in China's Fukien province. The results of fieldwork reveal that the immigrants of that time were in fact mainly of the Tseng, Chin and Hsiao clans.

In earlier times communications with the outside world were not easy and contacts with other Han people were mainly by sea. Going north from Takangko, up to the town of Fengpin, all was a sphere in which the Ami lived; if you travelled west for four or five hours, you only arrived at Jueisui after passing through the Ami tribe of Chimei; to the south, you also had to travel for half a day before reaching Changpin.

In this isolated environment the Han people developed a close relationship with the Ami who made up most of the population of Kangko. Many public services were undertaken between them, such as road building, the maintenance and building of houses, defense, and joint hunting and fishing; but nothing was of greater influence than marriage.

There was plenty of land and the people were thinly spread, and with manpower necessary to cultivate the land, people were seen as wealth. So as to increase their manpower, the Han would marry off their daughters according to Ami customs, attracting Ami men into their families who would take on the Han family name. Tseng Chin-lien and Chen Fu-sheng, once the mayor, along with many others, came from the Ami of Kangko to Takangko to marry and take on Han names. Han tradition would not allow this kind of marriage, where the man takes on the bride's family name, and with the Han style of life being somewhat better, many Ami women were willing to follow Han customs and take a Han husband.

In 1965, Takangko had a total of 40 married couples, among whom there were 26 where the groom had taken on the bride's family name--that is 65 percent and excludes women who married Han men. In other words, the patrilinear system of the Han and the matrilinear system of the Ami could coexist in Takangko.

Acculturation through mixed marriages: This situation, although it did attain the objective of increasing the population, also meant that the Ami blood-line was increasingly strong and its influence increasingly deep.

The 1965 survey revealed that there were 28 Ami families living in Takangko, with a total of 214 people and only 19 Han families, comprising 44 people. If you subtract from this staff from the local school, police and government organizations and those who moved there after Taiwan's retrocession to China, it can be seen that the earlier Han lineage had already been completely acculturated.

With the Ami gradually forming the majority in Han families, after a few generations Takangko's Han descendants took on a mixed Ami-Han culture, with the former being the stronger of the two elements. The situation was even reached where Han culture was gradually being lost altogether, the most thorough example of which was language.

The Han people of Takangko, due to the mixed marriage system and environmental influences, and the fact that the early immigrants were of uneducated peasant stock with no way to keep written records and teach the Chinese language, quickly lost their mother tongue.

According to Juan Chang-jui's survey, the displacement of Chinese was not a confused affair but rather one of the grammatical structure becoming completely that of the Ami language. Today, most of the locals aged over 6O can only speak the language of the Ami. In this process of linguistic acculturation, however, the Ami language did adopt a number of Chinese terms for utensils and kinship relationships.

Apart from language, because the marriages were usually matched with people from the Ami tribe of Kangko, the marriage ceremony also adopted Ami mores: The man and woman would get engaged during the harvest festival, and betel nuts and wine would be the betrothal gifts; the marriage would usually take place after the harvest and be presided over by the head of the family; the ancestral spirits would be informed and a banquet held for relatives and friends; on the second day there would be an Ami-style fishing party, the catch of which would be enjoyed by the whole village.

Agriculture continued to use Han-Chinese technology, making paddy-fields and using irrigation and ox-ploughing. Earlier Ami techniques were used for that land which was not suitable for such cultivation. What was particularly special was the use of Ami witchcraft for protection.

People would hunt in the mountains when agricultural activity was low, and in busy periods would use animal traps which they learnt how to make from the Ami, chanting Ami exorcisms as they constructed them.

A marriage to make up for shortcomings: Being next to the mouth of a river, the fishing tackle used by the people of Takangko was mostly that of the Ami; although they kept the large nets of the Han, they also used the primitive small fish nets and shrimp baskets of the Ami. In the summer they would also take part in the mass-fishing of the Ami and collect shells on the seashore.

Their building materials were the same as those of the Ami, using grass for houses which were not separated but of an appearance that was quite different. For example, the houses of the Ami had high-beamed joined beds without partitions, so that the whole family would sleep together, while the homes of Takangko were partitioned so as to be more conducive to a sense of privacy.

Ami looms were used to make hemp cloth for clothing, which was then cut to Ami sleeveless and collarless designs. Ami ceremonial attire and feather caps were also used for ornamentation.

In times of sickness, the people of Takangko would first consult the spirits, try certain kinds of divination and, when this was not successful, they would seek the help of an Ami witch-doctor.

As for mythology, this came mostly from the Ami, with nothing being known of Han tales and the residents only knowing the story of their one solitary Tasheng Temple.

Nevertheless, after 30 years, the course of modernization has brought changes: Linguistically, today Mandarin, Fukienese and the Ami language all coexist; marriages now take place in church; farming has become mechanized; fishing is done with nets and hooks together and buildings are constructed from reinforced-concrete; the sick go to hospital for treatment; and even Tasheng Temple has seen a revival of its services.

Maintaining respect for ancestors: As you enter a Takangko home, the startling altar and ancestral tablet you are confronted with form quite a contrast to the surrounding pieces of Ami culture on all sides. Chen Ah-chin, who is over 50 years of age, recalls that, "In the past it was all worshipping!" Most of the residents of Takangko had taken up Ami culture, but they still worshipped Han religion. Although they could not tell you about the Han system of gods, they knew it was the faith that had been passed down by their ancestors, whom they could not forget without inviting some kind of punishment.

To give an example, at present Lin Chin-sheng still preserves the ancestral tablet of his ancestor by four generations, Lin Kuan-ying. He places gold paper and incense sticks beside it and pays his respects there as the festivals dictate. Behind the tablet is hung a picture of the goddess Kuanyin, flanked by couplets reading: "Kuanyin can protect the country and aid the people; The heavenly virtue of the Divine Mother ensures peace and protects the masses."

Because Lin Kuan-ying's second and third generations of descendants only gave birth to girls, such ceremonies were carried out by women until the fourth generation, when once more there came a son into the family who could make the offerings.

From 1957 Protestant Christians began to use Kangko as a base and the Catholics strengthened their presence and made inroads. Yet there are still those who continue to preserve their ancestral tablets and their original faith so as to continue their Han culture.

Standing out in the community: Judging from the changes of the last 30 years, what the people of Takangko have been most outstanding in is politics.

Due to matrilinear and mixed marriages, the relationship between Takangko and Kangko is very close. In addition, the school, police station and military unit are all in Takangko, so it has become the political center for the Ami. The majority of the people's representatives come from Takangko, such as the mayor, who is the closest of all to the people of the area, and is usually elected from among the people of Takangko.

But if we make comparisons according to the numbers of citizens, there are twice as many Ami in Kangko, so it would seem natural that they would be the ones serving. The present rural township representative, Chiang Chiang-min, who was also the last speaker of the rural-township council, explains that because in earlier days the Han people could cultivate paddy-fields and had higher agricultural technology and large harvests, the Ami naturally wanted to study them. After several generations of such management, the people of Takangko opened a copper mine, rice-husking mill and a sugar refinery, so that their economic position remained high; they continued to rise in social status and the candidates they put forward were always elected.

Such sentiments also manifested themselves in the question of self-identity. One of the managers of this year's festival for a good harvest, the 42-year-old Chiang Mu-huo, says that most of the people of Takangko think they are basically Fukienese. Although they have a mixed lineage with the Ami, their feeling of superiority is still there; but as for their identity, they do not deny that they are members of the Ami. The fifth-generation granddaughter of Lin Kuan-ying, 20-year-old Lin Yu-nu, feels that she is completely Ami and is actively studying the Ami language.

Basically Han--with an Ami identity: Wanting to have the feeling of being a complete tribe, Takangko emulated the Ami by establishing their own meeting hut and organization of elders, and about ten years ago held a harvest festival.

In the past all the people of Takangko took part in the Kangko Ami harvest festival. So as to cultivate a centripetal force and with the hope that the young people would not return only for the Spring Festival but also after the summer work in the fields was completed, they decided to hold their own Ami harvest festival.

Because it is modelled on that of Kangko, Takangko's harvest festival is a small-scale affair lasting only a few days. It is organized by men aged 42 to 43, with every one of them having an opportunity to take on this responsibility. From the time they are selected, the arrangement of the festival and how it is to be carried out is all down to them. One of the organizers this year is chicken farmer Liu Ah-chung, who says he is something like a commander in an army unit--he has to manage everything.

Yet it is hard to avoid the fact that the young people coming back for the harvest festival are ever fewer in number. Just as with other peoples and tribes, traditional culture can only be preserved with the most painstaking of efforts; but if you want to assimilate into mainstream culture, that is all too easy.

Facing a new challenge: In the process of cultural change, the acculturation of Han people into the Ami tradition can be considered a counterexample. The Han were originally the majority of the population and had a strong culture, but when they arrived in an isolated environment and became the minority, they were soon assimilated by the Ami.

For the Han who had been acculturated in this way, after many years, the changes in their environment and coming into contact with the outside world has meant that what was originally a rather amorphous culture now faces a new and unavoidable challenge.

Takangko and Environs[Picture]

[Picture Caption]

Isolated at the mouth of the Hsiukuluan, the Han people of Takangko have been acculturated into the Ami through mixed marriages.

The mouth of the Hsiukuluan is the traditional fishing ground of the people of Takangko.

The people of Takangko mainly cultivate paddy-fields but also grow peanuts and corn on the side.

A fourth-generation immigrant from mainland China, Lin Chin-sheng preserves the Han reverence for ancestors by making offerings at an ancestral plaque in his sitting- room.

Unfortunately this is the only traditional Ami thatched veranda left standing in Takangko.

Everyday fishing and farming implements and crops become ornaments for the harvest festival.

Garbed in ceremonial dress, after visiting various tribes and relatives, they return to Takangko to celebrate the harvest festival.

The mouth of the Hsiukuluan is the traditional fishing ground of the people of Takangko.

The people of Takangko mainly cultivate paddy-fields but also grow peanuts and corn on the side.

A fourth-generation immigrant from mainland China, Lin Chin-sheng preserves the Han reverence for ancestors by making offerings at an ancestral plaque in his sitting- room.

Garbed in ceremonial dress, after visiting various tribes and relatives, they return to Takangko to celebrate the harvest festival.