Unscripted America (2017)

Rivett, Sarah. Unscripted America: Indigenous Languages and the Origins of a Literary Nation. Oxford, 2017. 

"The untranslatable aspects of indigenous languages have a disruptive impact on universal truths of either Scripture or Enlightened taxonomies...I refer to this disruptive impact as a process of unscripting." (Rivett, p. 11)

On the whole, this research speaks more about non-indigenous missionaries, fathers, philosophers, scientists and writers than about indigenous peoples. In the first six chapters, it traces chronologically the efforts of Anglo-Protestant missionaries and French Jesuits harvesting souls from their own fields in North America; in the last two chapters, President Thomas Jefferson's indigenous language project and Author James Fenimore Cooper's literary creation about Native Americans feature as themes.

Perhaps that's why the book is labeled 'literary criticism', and I felt I was back at the Department of Foreign Language and Literature when reading it.

Having said so, what's there for a reader like me looking for specific publication about indigenous peoples?

Gateway: Fifteen Paiwan Villages in Shizi, Pingtung

Gateway project completed 3.49% (26 out of 746).

746 is the number of indigenous villages ratified by Council of Indigenous Peoples Taiwan from  2010 until 2015. A complete list of all villages can be downloaded from the CIP website.

Gateway is a personal project by which I hope to visit these villages and take back as witness a photo either of the arch gateway or of any decorated monument at the village's entrance.

After Sinevaudjan and Manju, I moved on Wednesday, July 11, 2018 northwards towards Sisetu Township.  A large part of Sisetu marks the traditional territory of a powerful Paiwan chiefdom Tjakuvukuvulj since the Dutch Period until Japanese Occupation. Among the current seven administration areas, Paiwan inhabitants of the region can at least recognize (and have the government ratified) fifteen traditional villages. In total, Shizi is now home to 15 Paiwan villages, 1,721 households and 5,348 inhabitants.

Seven Books on the English Language

I know the title sounds ambitious. As I practice to write in good English, the English language inevitably draws me to itself per se. I wonder about its history; I am curious to know its lexicon; and I desire to acquire  or develop a good style. So, I gorged on the following seven books about English on my shelf, and here are some of the things I learned.

Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. Haper Perennial: 2001.

First published in 1990, my copy was a reissue by HaperCollins ten years afterwards. A sign of the book's longevity.

Bryson is very prolific; The Mother Tongue is only one of his three books on the English language. Consulting  at least 112 pieces of publication, he dabs by chapter on the history, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, style, lexicography, variety, status and future of the English language. Every chapter  can be (and has been) blown into a big volume by different authors, which renders Bryson's quite fit for a beginner on the subject matter. I picked up this copy at the airport and read it on the plane.

As Bryson explains, the English language is "order out of chaos", whose felicities include fusion (like trusteeship consists of  a Nordic stem trust, a French affix ee and an Old English root ship), democracy (common usage is preferred to authoritative dictate) and global presence empowered by entertainment, business, tourism and so on. Guess what language does the Belgium National Football Team use in the dressing room? English.

Gateway: Eleven Paiwan Villages in Mudan & Manju, Pingtung

On Saturday 30th of June I took a road trip to visit the indigenous villages in my hometown Sinevaudjan Township and the neighboring Manju Township, Pingtung County. 

The purpose of my trip is to initiate a personal project 'Gateway', in which I hope to visit the 746 indigenous villages of Taiwan in person, and take a photo of the gateway to each village as my witness. 

This region, better known as Lonckjouw in the early modern period, is home to indigenous peoples such as Paiwan, Amis, Makatao and Sqaro (the so-called Paiwanized Pinuyumayan). Nowadays, visitors can easily reach every village by following the loop sign put up by Kenting National Park.