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.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS