With a mix of traditional and pop music, Amis Aborigines native to Taitung County and guest musicians from other tribes gathered at the Amis village of A’tolan yesterday for the first Amis Music Festival.
“It has always been my dream to hold a concert in my hometown, and now that dream has come true. It’s not just a concert, but a music festival,” Golden Melody Award-winning singer-songwriter Suming Rupi (舒米恩·魯碧), a native of A’tolan, told the crowd at the music festival.
“I’m proud to have organized this music festival with my fellow villagers, and implant elements of the Amis and A’tolan culture in the performances,” he said.
Photo Courtesy of the Suming Studio
“Through the performances of my tribesmen, their handicraft, local specialties and cuisine, I hope everyone who traveled from afar to take part in this music festival will enjoy the village’s beautiful way of life, while also creating tribe-oriented economic development that will keep young Amis in their home villages,” he said.
The festival started around midday with a ceremony to raise the festival’s flag, followed by a traditional ritual to bless the event performed by three elders in the village, Halu, Panay and Sofin.
“Prior to the music festival, Suming visited everyone in the village — young and old — to seek our support, and we would also like to give our best wishes to the event,” Halu said. “I would like to take this chance to tell all the young people here to look after their elders and learn our culture.”
After the ritual, A’tolan villagers invited the hundreds of festival-goers to join them for a Malikoda, a traditional Amis group dance.
Many popular Aboriginal singers and bands — including A-lin (real name Huang Li-ling, 黃麗玲) Dakanow (達卡鬧), Matzka (瑪斯卡) and Totem (圖騰樂團) — performed at the music festival.
Audience members were in tears when Suming sang I am Singing Over There (我在那邊唱), which recounts his story of leaving his hometown, searching for the way to go home and finally returning home.
The Amis Music Festival is part of efforts by Amis in Taitung to promote tourism and develop the local economy based on their traditional culture, following campaigns opposing large-scale development projects, such as the controversial Miramar Resort Village construction project on Taitung County’s Shanyuan Beach (杉原沙灘).
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS