The biennial Pulima Art Festival (Pulima藝術節2016), a showcase for contemporary indigenous art and cultures, has moved south for its third installment after the first two were held in Taipei.
The festival, which opened on Saturday last week, runs through Feb. 5, with a multitude of dance, music and theater productions as well as art exhibitions and forums with contributions from Taiwan’s 14 Aboriginal communities, Austronesian-speaking areas and other indigenous peoples.
Organizers say the festival, the largest Aboriginal contemporary art event in the nation, is an important platform to showcase the power of Aboriginal cultural communication and to expose Aboriginal children to arts and cultural performances that are rooted in their own cultures.
Photo courtesy of Tjimur Dance Theatre
“Pulima” is a Paiwan word meaning creative or highly skilled people.
This year’s theme is “O loma no adingo,” which means “Home, where the spirit dwells.” The idea is to encourage young Aboriginals, especially artists, to have the courage to explore their own life experiences.
The festival, and the attendant Pulima Art Prize, is supported by the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, which took its initial inspiration for the event from the Edinburgh Art Festival and the Festival d’Avignon in France.
Groups that are members of the Taiwan Indigenous Performing Arts Connection, including the Pingtung County-based Tjimur Dance Theatre (蒂摩爾古薪舞集) and Taitung-based Bulareyaung Dance Company (布拉瑞揚舞團) are among those giving shows, along with the Atamira Dance Company and Black Grace from New Zealand and B2M (Bathurst to Melville), a seven-member band from the Tiwi Islands in Australia.
Tjimur and Black Grace will be performing their coproduction, 2_Gather (在一起), which premiered at the Taipei Arts Festival in September, this weekend.
The Hualien County-based Langasan Theatre (冉而山劇場), whose members are artists, farmers, blue-collar workers and academics from the Amis, Rukai and Sakizaya communities as well as Hakka and Hoklo, will present its new production, Mayaw Kakalawan (星星 — 颯旮啦旦老) for three shows at the Pier-2 Arts Center on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20
The festival events are being held around the city, at the Dadong Culture and Art Center, the Kaohsiung Experimental Theater, Pier-2 Arts Center and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
More information is available at the festival’s Web site (www.pulima.com.tw), though it is predominately in Mandarin.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
RSS