A passion for the sea
Growing numbers of people on Lanyu are becoming aware that traditional culture is in crisis and is in danger of being lost, and they have created organizations to research and promote such culture. For example, Syaman Rapongan and some friends have established the Island Indigenous Science Studio, while Syaman Macinanao, a singer who was nominated for Best Indigenous Language Album at the Golden Melody Awards, has founded the Iraraley Indigenous Culture Classroom. Other organizations, such as the Lan An Cultural and Educational Foundation, and the Research Association of Tao Culture and the Catholic Church in Lanyu, which have been working on Lanyu for many years, have also engaged with this topic. Also, after three laws governing experimental education were enacted in 2017, Yayu Elementary School and Lanyu Senior High School became experimental schools and began offering courses in ethnic studies.
Yayu Elementary School has a cultural performance troupe called The Flying Fish, and they hope that through their shows of traditional song and dance the whole world will get a chance to discover the spirit and culture of the Tao people. The troupe appeared in the film Long Time No Sea and in 2019 was invited to Poland to perform at the International Festival of Children’s Folk Ensembles.
Teacher Yen Tzuyu, who leads The Flying Fish, has been on Lanyu for 16 years now and has witnessed the decline of the Tao language. “When I first visited Lanyu back in 1997 students still spoke their mother tongue to each other, but when I came back less than ten years later to teach, I discovered that the students didn’t speak Tao very much. The younger generation of parents can understand it, but they don’t speak it very well.”
Yen understands only too well that the language is rapidly disappearing, and that once-a-week mother tongue lessons in school are manifestly inadequate. Therefore Yen, who has a background in music, has taken elements of song and dance that he has observed while teaching in various Taiwanese indigenous communities in the past and combined them with stories he has heard on Lanyu to create modern songs which he then asks Tao people to translate into their native tongue.
The song “Yama’s Big Boat” (yama means “father” in Tao) is frequently performed by The Flying Fish. It is based on a clan story that Yen heard from the parents of one of his students. For the Tao, there is great honor in building a boat. The student had once gone up a hill with his grandfather and made a mark on the clan’s tree to show his intention to build a boat when he grew up. But later the clan suffered misfortune, so that although the large canoe had already been built, they did not have enough people to launch it onto the sea, and it could only be left on the beach during the flying fish season. Yen was so moved by the sadness of this story that he wept on the spot, and decided to use it as the theme for a composition. When he sang the completed song for that student, the latter also shed tears as he recalled his grandfather.
On the transmission of traditional culture, Yen says: “The point is not to return to the way of life of the past, but to ensure that the connection with the sea is not lost.” By learning Yen’s songs, children can learn about the wisdom of their ancestors and have a chance to use their mother tongue. Yen adds: “When children go home and share these songs with their families, and ask questions, the younger generation of parents might also get the opportunity to learn about traditional culture. That is our hope.”
Lanyu canoes are constructed from the wood of various local trees, reflecting the Tao people’s concern for environmental sustainability.
(MOFA file photo)