Where to Meet a Real Indigenous Taiwan!
Taiwanese Students are occupying the Executive Yuan in protest of unpopular president Ma Ying-Jeou’s decision to rush through legislature that gives China greater access to Taiwan’s assets without the necessary deliberation. Some protestors fear this could lead to a slow annexation of Taiwan into a so-called ‘special region’ of China such as Hong Kong.
I visited Taiwan for the first time 5 years ago with my wife, who’s Taiwanese; at that time, I knew next to nothing about the country’s history and people. This has made observing and photographing life here all the more interesting to me. It is also a clear signifier to me that in the West we seem to lack a concept of what a Taiwanese identity is……
The ‘Mayasvi’ or Ceremony of War and Triumph is the greatest event in the calendar of Taiwan’s Tsou people. Now only carried out in either Tefuye (Tfuya) or Dabang (Tapangʉ) village in Alishan, the celebration has no fixed day, but instead the date is traditionally fixed each year by village males depending on such factors as how many babies had been born so far that year.
