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. 

Of course, Legends and Stories of paka:San published in 2008 will not have the latest winning piece by itih a taoS. But it has his poetry (Part I), collection of Saisiyat legends (some being very brutal and bloody, Part II), reconstruction of life stories of Saisiyat individuals (Part III), and short stories, two of which were winners of previous literature awards (Part IV). 

Pas-ta'ai (Ritual to the Short People) is a major theme in itih a taoS's book. It binds his people and drives them to reunite with tradition almost ambivalently. In the author's own words, the sending-away of the spirits of Short People is both: 

"hostile and friendly, tormenting and blessing; it deconstructs and reconstructs; its storyline signals ending but soon proclaims beginning, fully filling with life, change, circulation; its seems static, but is always telling the eternal struggle between two peoples." 

（亦敵亦友，是折磨也是恩賜，有摧折也有繁衍，已結束又將開始的情節，飽含生命、變化、流動。看似毫無進展，卻在演繹著兩個族群生命的拉拔。）

What moves me the most though is the story of his own father in "Risky Bluff and Dangerous Beach"（危崖與險灘）。

The author's father was born in 1928 and passed into another world in his late sixties. In other words, he lived through both Japanese and early Chinese KMT colonial powers. "Risky Bluff and Dangerous Beach" tells his very unfortunate experience, especially as twice a recruit first by Japanese military just before WWII ended, and then, by Chinese KMT government that was then pledging to fight the red army until the end and recover Mainland China. 

Arguing why indigenous peoples of Taiwan should fight for Japanese or Chinese causes did not help to save the life of indigenous young men who provided valuable manpower much needed in wartime. During his two recruitments, the author's father witnessed how indigenous (and Taiwanese) soldiers were literally TRASHED by Japanese and Chinese superiors. 

In one of the episodes, a tattooed Atayal young man was cruelly bullied like an animal by the Chinese captain. The captain called him bad names, humiliated him in front of others, or asked him to lick the manure bucket. He even dressed him like a communist to make him a target in a military drill and award his head, life or death. Although in the end, the young managed to stay alive, the captain caught him, cut his fight hand off as an example for all soldiers that they should do the same to a communist in war. Then he dismissed the wounded young man from the army. Several days later, the captain was found deadly dead in the camp with his throat torn wide open. Everybody knew who did it. 

Hatred is of course not to be encouraged. But how could one walk through such hell without any trauma? I feel the tremendous weight of hatred from these pages that I could hardly breathe and I could almost shout 'Well Done! He totally deserved it!'. 

In fact, I have not lived through such inhumanity; the author's father did. As he described, his father said, 

"I was first a Japanese soldier and then a Chinese soldier...I faithfully bent with the wind like a grass, always remembering to bow first to the Japanese flag and then to the Chinese flag. Nevertheless, I suffered all the same from brutal attacks and threatening living conditions. Fearing losing it all, I played a smiling face. Who cares about insecure positions and wretched dignity? Although I see clearly our peoples acknowledg their powerlessness and frailty in toil and labor, they still will live and die so clumsily like this on this land."

（當了日本兵又徵召為中國兵...但忠實地扮演隨風搖曳的牆頭草角色，一逕巴結日本旗幟又逢迎國民政府旗，遭受生命無情打擊和生存條件備受威脅卻一般。因害怕失去一切而裝笑臉活下去，誰又在乎不確定的地位及猥瑣曖昧的尊嚴，雖然敏銳地看見族人用勞役體認無能和頹弱，但是仍將笨拙的在這塊土地上，出生和死亡。）

Until the end of his life, I think the father was never able to walk out of this trauma. Being oppressed like that, his life was tragic, hopeless and lonely. I totally understand his (and probably the author's too) sentiment. My only trouble, for myself now, is how can I read such story with compassion and understanding? How is forgiveness inspired by undisguised oppression?  What is the lesson of this history?

Somehow I realize now why the Saisiyat language teacher that I visited a few months ago so denied the loanwords that exist in their language. For them, these loanwords are not only words. They are marks of such horrible memory; who then wish to remember.