Article & photos by Lenora A.Hayman.
The 26th TAIWANfest 4-7th Sept.2015 “The Torch of Hope” in Vancouver, showed how the history of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Han Chinese, Hakka immigrants, the 50 years of Japanese colonization and their indigenous tribes, have all contributed to passing on the torch to future generations.
On Friday night at the opening ceremony and The Beautiful Island Concert, in the former Centre, now the Westside Church, Maestro Ken Hsieh, the Vancouver Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with background video, joined Prof. Dr. Shien-Ta Su, from Taipei National University of the Arts, pianist Yi-Chih Lu, violinist Sun-fan Yiu and the ballet and offered pieces from Taiwan’s past.
On Granville St. on the Formosa Pop-up Cooking Stage, Chef Wang Wei-Pin offered a salty pork dish that had been cooked for 96 hrs and Chef Lu Chun-Nan made beef satay skewers and little dragon buns.
Happy crowds lined up at the street banquet stalls on the 800 block Granville for shrimp/oyster omelet pancakes, deep fried squid and Chef James Xin Jiang Man’s BBQ skewers of shrimp, chicken, beef and lamb.
The Tsu Chi Foundation hosted the popular Traditional Chinese Medical Practitioners, one of whom was Alfred Man offering Cancer focused acupuncture immune support and Jane Wang whose strong fingers found stress knots in my neck.
In Tugou village (Tainan, Taiwan) the farmhouses are exhibition spaces. The former head of the village turned his pig farm into a community living room where farmers plan their future. Art students also created a mosaic stone sofa for the farmers’ market and transformed a tractor into an anti-nuclear installation art piece. Installed for the 1st time at TAIWANfest was the Hope Talk Stage, based on stories contributing to the life of this farm village and hosted by folk sharing their perspectives on life. It was like a street TED talk.
Shya-fen Tsai Billington, a Taiwanese/Canadian artist in sculpture, painting and design, shared her story of building her largest sculpture, their private home in Vancouver.
Cheryl Robbins, a Professional, Licensed Tour Manager/ Tour Guide and Freelance Arts, Culture and Travel Writer, is an American/Canadian who has lived in Taiwan for 26 years. Her Tribe-Asia company promotes Taiwan’s Indigenous Arts and Culture. We learned that so far there are 16 recognized aboriginal tribes of Taiwan as well as unrecognized tribal groups. The Taiwanese Aborigines are not Asian but Austronesian with language and genetic ties to NZ Maori, Philippinos, Malaysians and Madagascans. The musical group Enigma used an Ami chant in the song “Return to Innocence” the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Over at the ice-rink in Robson Square was First Impressions, a display of 16 high fashion dresses by aboriginal designer André. Traditional aboriginal totem images were transformed into geometrical patterns on the cloth, allowing this emerging fashion designer to show New York and the world, the newest impression from the 1st Nation people in Taiwan. A yellow and black dress called Sun Shooting-Bunan, honours the Bunan legend of 2 suns. The heat of one sun killed an unattended baby. In revenge this sun was shot down and became the moon. To avoid punishment from the injured sun, rituals regularly pay tribute to the moon.
Adjacent was the Art of Seating, a display of 8 beautiful, bamboo chairs. One chair, created from 43 strips of Taiwanese bamboos, was sold for 10,000 Euros. When a whimpering baby was laid down on another couch created from bamboo balls, it stopped crying. All young families would like one of those.
Thank you and see you next year!