Ljuljima / A Prayer（思念感恩歌）

(This is a very beautiful, yet  very difficult song. I am singing it for those who are attending the 2015 Graded Indigenous Language Proficiency Test tomorrow [19th December 2015], like I myself. Though whether or how the Test helps language revitalization remains debatable, I pray the act will mean for each participant a true commitment to live with their mother's - or in cases now, grandmother's - language for life.)

Ljuljima i ya na na ya u 

Ini maluljai e a izuwa i 

Masalutsalut ya a ti Cemas

Idu a tevelji itjen a mapuljat

Ljuljima i ya na na ya u 

Ini maluljai e a izuwa i

Kalevalevai idu a tja sevalitan 

Kinizazanga e a nitjen a palalaut

Ljuljima i ya na na ya u 

Ini maluljai e a izuwa i 

Tisun a nia sevalitan, papupiculi amen

Ina tjen a manguaq a patjemamilin. 

Untitled（情歌）

Untitled

kadjamadjaman vai a en na sema gadu

namasi cengel aen ta su ngadan a u kaka

mayanga u qadavan, mayanga u zeliyan

i a u si aluljaluljay.

u pacucunan sun

u pacucunan sun

dangidagida maciurciur itjen

ay saqetju a varung na ni aen

mayanga u qadavan, mayanga u zeliyan 

i a u si aluljaluljay. 

Some of My Translation Publication

（自2009年以來，我一直有機會做中英文筆譯出版品，有小說、研究報告、短篇故事及政府文案。）

Since 2009, I've been involved in large translation projects; novels, research, short stories and official pamphlets were the genre I dealt with.

In 2009, it was Gaile Parkin's Baking Cakes in Kigali: A Novel .

Parkin was a journalist in Africa. She turned her observations into a novel about a woman named Angel, who had the ability to create happiness and hope for people around her  with wonderful and tasteful cakes.

I worked on the Chinese translation of this novel in 2009 before I flew to the Netherlands for study.  The final product was 幸福推手, published by Big Tree (Taipei) in 2009.

When I left Taiwan, I brought another translation contract with me. It was Sandra Dallas's Prayers for Sale.

This is a very different story. Set against the Depression during 1930s in a mountainous town called Middle Swan, Colorado, it tells about the unlikely friendship between two women set apart from each other by sixty years and also by very different life experiences. What binds them, however, is a shared woe over lost loved ones, which they try to tackle with by stitching blankets.

Working on this Chinese translation and my Dutch studies at the same time from 2009 until 2010 was really a tough time for me. After all, it was here: 我願為妳祈禱, published by Big Tree (Taipei) in 2010. And my Dutch grades were good enough to get me into an honor's college.

2015 Conference on the Development of Taiwanese Aborigines and China's Ethnic Minorities

Published in Aboriginal Education World No. 65 (October 2015): 94-95.

Talking to Ina

（這是一段和Ina的對話，我永遠都不要忘記。）

This is about one of my conversations with Ina (mom), one which I intend to remember forever.

Last weekend, I attended a two-day seminar called "Revisit Your Childhood"（走訪童年）. The lecture was great, so was the group of participants. In two days, we were shown how formative preschool years may shape a child's personality in the future:

Born~Year 1: Children learn to trust, to love and be loved.

Year 1~Year 3: Children learn about boundary and learn to respect boundary.

Year 3~Year 6: Children learn to tell from imagination to reality, from falsehood to truth.

Year 6~Year 12: Children learn about responsibility and cooperation.

Five books by Jonathan D. Spence

（介紹出生英國、落腳美國、研究中國的史學家史景遷的書。史景遷不太分析，不好道理，但是說了一手的好故事，把過去的人事物，大大小小或重要不重要，說得淋漓盡致，其實是相當了不起的功夫。）

In this interview, 'As luck would have it', the British American historian Jonathan D. Spence said, "History was somehow something that gave me an anchor in, admittedly, other people's lives", but he "wasn't prepared to generalise with no guidance...[he] wanted to have things shapeable...one could really organise these  events of the past in a different way". And he made a wonderful presentation with his one and only case, China.

In An Antique Land (1992)

（1980年代，印度作家Amitav Ghosh還是英國牛津大學人類學博士生，當時他到埃及兩個小鄉村做農業田野調查。他在這本書結合自己的田野筆記以及12世紀興盛的印度洋貿易歷史。同樣的區域，跨越八百年的旅行，又兩種人文學科的對話，被譽為翻天覆地的旅人歷史書。）

"A subversive history in the guise of a traveller's tale", Amitav Ghosh's In An Antique Land beautifully interweaves two types of journey undertaken by the author himself.

One journey leads Ghosh to the country side of Egypt in the 1980s as a student of anthropology. His investigation erstwhile revolved around agriculture, though  in In An Antique Land, readers see more of the villagers across a span of a decade than of the author's research subject per se.

Another journey shows Ghosh traveled from manuscript to manuscript, like a historian, hoping to reconstruct the life of a slave from the Malabar coast of India based on only few leaks from the letters penned by the slave's Jewish master Abraham Ben Yijû and his circle of mentors and friends.

One Week with Carlo Ginzburg

（以下是我聽義大利史學家Carlo Ginzburg到台灣中央研究院及台大歷史研究所演講的感想。）

The 2015 Fu Ssu-Nien Lectures （傅斯年講座） was awarded to Carlo Ginzburg, an Italian historian and a practitioner of microhistory. 

This was his first trip to Taiwan. He stayed for ten days, gave two lectures, joined one symposium and agreed to a conversation with students and faculty from the History Department of National Taiwan University (NTU). Before taking the flight back to Europe, he visited Hualien.

Like a fan, I followed all of Ginzburg's talks in Taipei, at the same time feeding my hunger for knowledge by watching all his talks on youtube. Chances came that I was able to ask him several questions at the conversation about colonial archives and philology, and they not only earned me a pleasant dinner with him and several faculty members from NTU and Academia Sinica on the last day, but also put me into contact with fellow historians that take interest in my research.

How fortunate and grateful! Yes, I take it as a call from History.

Lessons from the National indigenous Languages Survey's Reports in Australia

This brief comparison between the national indigenous languages survey reports of Taiwan (made in 2012 & 2014) and the survey reports of Australia (made in 2005 & 2014) came out in Aboriginal Educational World 《原住民教育情報誌》No. 63 (June, 2015). pp. 58-61.

My article argues that for a language survey report to be really useful, it should contain a detailed analysis of the language's current status based on both quantitative and qualitative survey results; it should generate localized endangerment and vitality factors from the detailed analysis; and it should also propose ways to redress that correspond to each distinct language endangerment case. There is definitely not one miracle pill for all types of loss.

To present survey results alone with numerous tables and statistic formulas is not helpful. Numbers are important, but it is the story of those numbers that truly enlightens.

Celebrate 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' in ILRDC Way

August 1st is Indigenous Peoples' Day in Taiwan.

It celebrates the island's indigenous cultures and remembers how indigenous rights came to be recognized by Taiwan's constitution since the Indigenous Rights Movement in mid-1980s.

1984 - Taiwan's indigenous peoples asked the government to call them by 'indigenous people' （yuan-zhu-min, 原住民 ）instead of the stigmatizing 'mountain tribe' or mountain fellow'（shan-bao, 山胞 ）.

1994 August 1- 'Indigenous People' made it into the constitution of Taiwan and replaced 'mountain tribe'.

1997- 'Indigenous People' became 'Indigenous Peoples', signifying the recognition of each indigenous group as a collective entity.

From 'raw savage', 'cooked savage' to 'mountain tribe' to 'indigenous people', this process marks our continuous fight against the naming power of colonizers. Nothing is by no means granted here.

For ILRDC, a center built to revitalize endangered indigenous languages, how else can we feel the meaning of the day other than speak our own languages and tell people not only do we have our own names, but we also have our own ways of saying them? We have our own languages; they too deserve to be recognized and used more in fact.

With that spirit, ILRDC launched 'Challenge Our Mother Tongues in Ten Seconds'（挑戰十秒說族語）, inviting people to film themselves speaking their own languages in ten seconds. By the end of 31st July, the center has 38 films from 19 language variations. Here they are.

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day.

May indigenous languages continue to strive and stay alive.

kai na kacalysiyan: Report on the Current Situation of Indigenous Languages in Taiwan

Presented at Satellite Event of 13 International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (July 23, 2015, Academia SINICA, Taipei Taiwan).

I prepared the talk in English (with a brief introduction in my mother tongue Paiwan) for my target audience - Austronesian linguists from all over the world - and I intended to take them on a time journey from the 17th century onward, so they may see the language shift on the island.

Generally speaking, indigenous languages in Taiwan are now in the hospital. Policies, including those supporting ILRDC, are the medicines. Treatments have so far been given for two decades.

After the report, Ethnologue showed excitement that it has found a new source of information with which they could revise their website, and they would be happy to keep in contact. Personally, I also think it is time to reevaluate the vitality of Taiwan's indigenous languages. UNESCO Interactive Atlas isn't really accurate in the case of Taiwan; Global Language Hotspots can also use some new data.

But such revision isn't an ode to the success of previous revitalization efforts. Though encouragement intended, the purpose here is, instead, rather to know where kai na kacalysiyan (indigenous peoples' language) truly are, so as to come up with really good plans, feasible and effective, that will keep the languages alive.

Inner Mongolia（內蒙古）

(The following is about my trip to China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in July 2015).

結束了「2015年台灣原住民族與大陸少數民族發展研討會」，去了俗稱「酒吧一條街」的北京后海喝小酒唱山歌，到了天安門廣場和故宮參觀幾小時，也親眼瞧過「鳥巢」、「水立方」，之後就準備前往此行真正的目的地：內蒙古自治區。

內蒙古面積118萬平方公里，人口2,400餘萬，將近四十個台灣大，人口卻只多一點。這趟旅程只鎖定第三大都市赤峰市以及赤峰市下的三個旗及兩個區：翁牛特旗、巴林右旗、克什克騰旗（蒙族詩人席慕蓉的家鄉）、紅山區及松山區。

以上這些地方加起來還是三個台灣大，將近9萬平方公里，因此在名副其實的「大陸」該趕的路，一點也沒有少掉。

2015 Conference on the Development of Taiwan Aborigines and China's Ethnic Minorities

Presented at 2015 Conference on the Development of Taiwan Aborigines and China's Ethnic Minorities (July 4, 2015). My role was the commentator for the third session of the Forum. 

I used two concepts, 'co-management' and 'empowerment', to respond to the presentations on language revitalization and the design of ecological compensation standard and cultural-touristic zone. Whether it comes to developing indigenous languages, tourism, land or civil rights, it is my belief that indigenous peoples and minorities should have a say and a role in any decision-making process. There is no development if the people's very own voice is not heard. ILRDC, which works so closely with indigenous language teachers and villagers via a number of channels, is working towards the goals of comanagement and empowerment.  

2014 Taiwan Indigenous Language International Conference

Published in Aboriginal Educational World No. 61 (February 2015): 94-95. 

原住民族語言研究發展中心 生日快樂！

(Here I share the One-Year Anniversary Film of ILRDC. )

原住民族語言研究發展中心成立到今天（2015年6月17日）剛滿一年，製作了周年影片，訴說一些從2014年跨到2015年的故事，沒說的也還很多，片長卻已經逼近九分鐘。

語發中心目前還是計劃預算支持，沒有組織法，人事會計由承標單位管理，不算是獨立的中心。還好，今年承標的台北市立大學充分授權中心人員執行年度計畫及活動，我們才有機會學習中心獨立的樣子，邊做邊建立一些中心體制。

對我而言，今年雖然還有一半，產生年度成果的一半，我也因此延緩回到歷史研究獨行遠行的行列，但是我已經感受到這段經歷將是我人生中很重要的一環。我在這裡看見屬於台灣原住民的希望，能為這個希望付出是我的祝福與榮幸。同時，我也在這裡逐漸確認屬於自己的未來，過程不總是愉快，但能因此確認自己的方向，也是值得感恩的地方。

於公於私，我都祝福語發中心，生日快樂！Happy One-Year Old, ILRDC. 

A Study of TSM Loanwords in Sixteen Indigenous Languages in Taiwan

Presented at The 7th International Conference on Taiwanese Romanization (May 22 2015) at National Cheng Kung University.

That experience was itself quite interesting; Mandarin was nowhere allowed in the conference. Everyone else was speaking TSM, reminding each other of the evil of a state-imposed national language, while I (probably the only indigenous speaker) presented in English and conversed in TSM, which seems to be surprisingly sufficient. TSM has the largest speaker-population in Taiwan but Mandarin became the national language in the 1950s.

To be frank, indigenous peoples and Holo-lang (or Hoklo Taiwanese that speak TSM) aren't always at peace. The studies I read as well as the fieldwork I did also tell me despite of their increase, TSM loanwords are the least popular with indigenous peoples, in comparison, who also tend to deny their existence. This certainly is a point to elaborate for the publication of the same topic. Maybe in September.

I Baw (Paiwan)

（排灣族女作家伊苞和她的《老鷹再見》）

miperepereper i     kalevelevan  aza  aris
   soaring          in         sky          the  eagle
   (Verb           +        Place       +   Subject)

Translation: The eagle is soaring in the sky.

This syntax is typical for Austronesian languages such as Paiwan. Verbs are essential and always in the first place, whose meanings are determined by the focus system.

In this sentence, the unconjugated verb is 'perepere' or 'perper' (to fly) in Raleigh Ferrell's 1982 Paiwan Dictionary.  'mi' is an agent marker that attributes the movement to the subject (the eagle); therefore, 'mi-perepere' or 'mi-perper' means fly or flies. and to duplicate the verb stem by a single syllable (perepere becomes 'perepereper') makes the verb a present participle or V-ing; so, 'mi-perepere-per' means flying.

That is probably the farthermost into linguistics I can go about my mother language at the moment. Thanks to my days spent at the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center.

But the book is actually not about Paiwan language. It is about a Paiwan woman's journey to West Tibet that seems to bring her so far away from home, yet in fact even closer to where she originally came from. It is, as I like to see myself as well, returning by leaving, settling while moving.

Untitled（情歌）

Untitled

u pacucunan sun na i zalja zalja

su calivadan aku u maqaljinavia

u pacucunan sun na i lau lau

su calivadan aku kinsaljinadupa

sikuda aya sun da supaqaljemu lja

uri kemuda a en ta u tjengelai a en tjanusun

mamau a lja vuvu a kacalisian itjen 

ari senai ta 'hoinaluwan' (x 2)

Fever

Fever (by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport) 

Never know how much I love you

Never know how much I care

When you put your arms around me

I get a fever that's so hard to bear

You give me fever when you kiss me

Fever when you hold me tight

Fever in the mornin'

Fever all through the night

Situate Home in Travels

On 4th March 2015, I was invited by Center for Indigenous Studies of National Taiwan University to talk about my own experience in indigenous international affairs and historical research. They named the session, "Crushing Waves and Chasing Dreams: International Relations from Indigenous Perspectives".

My presentation was in Mandarin, and I based it upon many of my blog articles where I discussed similar issues in depth with personal reflection. My blog is my archive.

After my presentation, the NTU professor (an anthropologist) that invited me gave me a big hug, telling me how touched she felt by my genuineness, and students flocked over to exchange opinions. A few days later, a part-time journalist who also heard the presentation that evening made an interview appointment with me, saying she wanted to know more and to write about my pursuit of historical truth. Our interview went over four hours, and I wonder if that is the reason why she seems to have a hard time to get the article out. I haven't heard from her since.

In comparison, I always find it very difficult to talk about myself or personal experience. It's not like talking about the fieldwork I did; it's  about me, the fieldworker. Such topic requires a look back on personal history, while life is going on and thoughts developing still. Besides, there is also a certain amount of bashfulness. These combined create resistance against opening oneself up in front of an audience.

Yet, an invitation accepted is a promise to fulfill. So I did my part faithfully and sincerely hope for the best.

Three Books about Historians

以下是三本有關歷史學家的書：《時代的先行者》（台北：獨立作家，2014） 、《史家的誕生》（台北：時英，2008）及Pilgrims to the past（Leiden： CNWS，1996），用國立臺灣大學原住民族研究中心的邀請當引言。

I have been invited by Center for Indigenous Studies of National Taiwan University to talk at a session called "Crushing Waves and Chasing Dreams: International Relations from Indigenous Perspectives"（破浪、築夢：原住民觀點的國際關係）.  This session will take place on 4th of March in a cafe near my alma mater.

While this invitation honors me especially by coming from a renowned anthropologist of Taiwan and the Pacific, I am also deeply bothered by the session's focus on international relations because of two reasons.

First, despite that I was (probably still am and will be too) involved with multiple events of a diplomatic nature in different capacities for the Council of Indigenous Peoples, I have never really considered myself dedicated to international relations. As I explained in another blog post, 台灣原住民族國際事務, I was merely a vessel that contributed where she saw fit.

Second, to reorient myself back to research, I resigned my work at the International Affairs Section last April to join the newly established Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center（ILRDC）. Yes, for the past few months we had international  visitors at the center and I again performed a similar role as I was doing before; nevertheless, our purpose was straightforward and targeted. We were exchanging research experience in indigenous languages.

Therefore, what can I talk about at the session? I really wonder, and I confess it has more to do with personal preference than with which story to tell.

Anthology of Taiwan Indigenous Literature

有關《台灣原住民文學英文選集》（台北：原住民族委員會，2015）。

On Saint Valentine's Day of 2015, Council of Indigenous Peoples used the occasion of 2015 Taipei International Book Exhibition and launched the four-volume Anthology of Taiwan Indigenous Literature (Taipei; CIP, 2015). 

Volume I is 'Chronicle of Significant Events for Taiwan Indigenous Literature', which briefly reviews the development since 1951 until 2014. 

Volume II is the collection of 'Poetry and Prose', which contains 39 pieces of poem and 27 pieces of prose. Translators include Wu Shu-hwa, Hsu Pao-fang and Cheryl Robbins. 

Volume III and IV present 23 short stories in total. Translators include C.J. Anderson-Wu, Hsu Pao-fang, Tseng I-hua, Grace Gao (Atayal) and Yedda Palemeq (Paiwan).

The Columbian Exchange (1972)

This post is about Alfred Crosby's 1972 classic The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (Originally published by Praeger).

我手邊這本是由鄭明萱翻譯，貓頭鷹書房慶祝三十周年紀念修訂新版。

讀了粉絲Mann，再回頭讀偶像Crosby，發現那其中的關係果然真的，前者在主題、寫法、觀點、關懷（生態環境）、甚至是語氣，無不有承襲後者的味道。

差異在當粉絲的Mann有：(1)全世界跑透透的田野；(2)增加新的研究資料，例如亞馬遜流域、中南美印地安文明、太平洋物流與中國；(3)修正Crosby自己在2003年再版序中也道了歉的錯誤；(4)深究Crosby沒有著墨的案例（相反地，也不贅述偶像已經談過的馬或梅毒）......等等。

至於粉絲Mann的文字是否比Crosby偶像的原文更平易近人（lay）則無法判斷，因為我讀的是翻譯本，雖然裡頭的人名和地名翻成中文後，讓我馬上落入十里霧中摸不著頭緒―我個人還是傾向在筆譯中保留原文的人名及地名―，原來熟悉的馬上變不熟悉，很想立即找回原文消除焦慮，我還是可以感覺原著Crosby有時很調皮的口吻（例如性就是「現代人不但未肯放棄，而且還一再陷溺的行為」），畢竟寫這本書的時候，教授還很年輕。

1491 (2005) and 1493 (2011)

This post is about Charles C. Mann's bestsellers 1491 (Vintage, 2005) and 1493 (Vintage, 2011).

兩本由美國記者Charles C. Mann撰寫的世界史書，用西元紀年當書名，第一本於2005年出版、2011年再版，叫《1491：前哥倫布時代美洲啟示錄》（大陸中信出版翻譯）；第二本於2011年出版，叫《1493：物種大交換丈量的世界史》（台灣衛城出版翻譯）。

兩本中間隔了對西方世界意義非凡的1492年，據說那一年一位義大利出身的航海家哥倫先生（Colon），在成功要脅取得西班牙皇室贊助下，驅艦橫越大西洋，終於「發現了新大陸」。既然這麼重要，為什麼Mann要跳過這一年？

很簡單，因為有人先寫了，其中最經典的就是美國德州大學奧斯汀分校榮譽教授Alfred W. Crosby所寫的The Columbian Exchange（《哥倫布大交換》，1972年問世，2003年再版）。這本書提供學者及讀者觀察世界史的全新視野，影響深遠，Mann就是其中一位深受感動的人。

Mann說，他根本是《哥倫布大交換》的粉絲，好不容易認識Crosby教授本人之後，非常希望教授再擴充、再繼續寫，一直盧一直盧，盧到教授後來都煩了，吼了他一句（growled at him）：「你那麼有興趣，幹嘛不自己寫？」他只好摸摸鼻子，拿出當記者的看家本領，到處讀，到處跑，到處訪問，花了好幾年時間，終於寫出兩本把偶像包在中間的書。

有趣的是，Crosby教授在70s年代完成的《哥倫布大交換》手稿根本沒有出版社想要，他自嘲以為到街上隨便丟，給路人撿到的機率都比較大。倒是Mann這兩本一出，便立即爬上全美暢銷書榜首，佳評如潮。我一邊好奇不知做偶像的如何感想，一邊也明白這並不難解釋，閱讀市場的改變、書寫的方式等等，想想也不一定要在乎，畢竟沒有偶像提出的新論點，Mann也就沒有書寫的基礎。

Itih a TaoS (Saisiyat)

介紹賽夏族作家伊替達歐索（根阿盛）的《巴卡山傳說與故事》。

I do not know itih a taoS personally as I know Rimuy Aki or paelabang danapan. In fact, when I first picked up the book, I was wondering if the author came from outside of Taiwan. Even being indigenous myself, I find his name as foreign to me as Miguel Ángel Asturias, for example. 

Not until I read the foreword and the story about the author's Chinese name that I soon realized he is the oftentime winner of indigenous literature awards here in Taiwan. 

A writer from the relatively smaller Saisiyat People found separated by Dabajian Mount Ranges in two different counties, Hsin Chu County for Northern Saisyat and Miaoli County for Southern Saisyat, itih a taoS belongs to Southern Saisiyat, whose writing again won the laureate of the category of short story in 2014 San-hai Indigenous Literature Award. 

Paelabang Danapan (Pinuyumayan)

介紹卑南族作家孫大川的三本散文集。

(paelabang danapan, second from left)

Calling himself a 'stage builder for Formosans',  paelabang danapan (Puyuma Nation) as far as I see indeed deserves this epithet. I feel it from our encounters, his endeavors; and I see it from the following three books that collect his various pieces of writing from 1985 until 2010.

Professionally speaking, paelabang danapan is a professor of Formosan history, literature and political development; Chinese and western philosophies have also since been his research interests. He taught at various places including Soochow, National Dong Hwa and National Chengchi universities.

Although he personally witnessed and believed in the silent power of an ivory tower like Oxford and Cambridge as well as that of a European monastery during his MA study in Belgium — "I truly believe my contemporary intellectuals should take building the ivory tower [of knowledge] as their mission of the time. Only by standing above reality can we come to a true understanding of reality! " (The World of Sea and Mountain, p. 77)—, his deep concerns for fellow indigenous Formosans, 'the Peoples of the Dusk", prevented him from building one, let alone hiding in one.

Instead, he has created a long and outstanding career in politics, serving twice in the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), first as its very 1st Deputy Minister, then as its 7th Minister. Now he is the Deputy President of the Control Yuan. I think for him, only by standing 'entangled in reality' rather than above or away, can he lay the foundation for indigenous development in perspective. Entangled until the end of his day.

Rimuy Aki (Atayal)

介紹泰雅族女作家里慕依•阿紀的兩本長篇小說：山櫻花之戀及懷鄉。

(Rimuy Aki, first from left)

Rimuy Aki (Atayal Nation) is one of the few indigenous female writers in Taiwan. She works as a Atayal language teachers at elementary schools; writing, a very lonely business as she once told me, is something else for her. 

I think Rimuy actually prefers telling stories to writing them. When I read her novels, I always feel she is just right there on every page reading every line to my ear. That is how 'smooth' her story line goes; I can easily finish seventy or a hundred pages in some hours. 

Unlike Syaman Rapongan who writes about Tao men and their sea with  a hard soul, Rimuy's tone is soft, very feminine, and sometimes excessively romantic for a reader being trained as a historian like me, even when she deals with Atayal hunters struggling with wild boars in deep mountains. Nevertheless, she soothes the soul. 

The other day at the release conference of her second novel, Missing Home, I heard people calling her 'A writer that heals the soul'. Despite the fact how I do complain she simplifies life and colonial reality in her novels, I couldn't agree more with the comment. That is  one of the values of her writing. 

A Preliminary Study of Loanwords in Formosan Languages

介紹我在2014年12月27日2014年台灣原住民族語言國際研討會發表的「台灣原住民族語借詞初探」。

On 27th December 2014, ILRDC (Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center) hosted its first international conference in Taipei, Taiwan. 

(Photo from left to right: Te Haumihiata Mason, Amy Pei-Jung Lee, Poia Rewi, former ILRDC Director Wen-Chung Kao, Feng-Fu Tsao, Paul Jen-Kuei Li, Yedda Palemeq, Joy Jing-Lan Wu, CIP Director Kun-Sheng Chen, Tiun Hak-khiam and Tukung Sra)

The theme of the conference was 'Loanwords, New Words and Indigenous Revitalization Policies'. Thirteen specialists and junior researchers of the Austronesian languages attended to share their knowledge; eight of them are indigenous. 

Taiwan Indigenous TV covered the conference with 原民外來新詞調查成果 學者交流. My colleague, ilong moto, and I myself were interviewed for our individual research, while Deputy Minister of Council of Indigenous Peoples, Tunkan Tansikian, talked about the purposes and prospects of ILRDC. 

Syaman Rapongan (Tao): Part II

介紹達悟族作家夏曼•藍波安2014年最新長篇小說：大海浮夢。

How can I translate Syaman Rapongan's (Tao Nation) latest book 大海浮夢 (2014. 09), an autobiography and biography of a pretty man and a pretty people on their continuing journey towards keeping the beauty of native science and native way of life? 

I still don't know, but I know I need more than knowledge of the English language to deliver that. 

Four chapters; four hundred and seventy three pages. I follow Syaman through his childhood, adolescence, self-exile across islands of the South Pacific and pirate-haunted Moluccas Strait; at last we return to the almost empty beach by his village on Pongso no Tao since nowadays, only very few of them care about the tradition of tatala (plank boat) building. 

With the introduction of motor-driven boats comes the decline of interest in traditional Tao canoes. So gradually disappear the native knowledge of trees, fishes and, most of all, the reciprocity between nature and people through labor.