It has been a very long time we could spare some time for recording the songs of the Frogs of Taiwan. So far we have only 21 species documented amongst the 32… But last Saturday (09.10.2010) we could get the Rana sauteri’s sounds. We joined a group of volunteers for rescuing this endangered specie which most recent scientific name is Pseudoamolops sauteri梭德氏赤蛙 (Boulenger, 1909) and in Chinese . This is currently their breeding season, so the frogs are migrating to the river where they gather to sing. Unfortunately bloody stupid government ingieneers built concrete walls that the animals can’t cross. So all amphibians finish their life under the wheels of passing cars. Fortunately some environment and nature lovers organize events to rescue them by watching the road area, catching the frogs and bringing them to the river. After the rescue, we could record the delicate sounds of their calls which are usually difficult to hear since the river environment is noisy  because of water streams.
Link : 新竹大山背 http://sowhc.sow.org.tw/html/article/990915b/99015b.htm 

 28.10.2010: Pawang teaches the Atayal mother language to the kids. We collaborate with him to imagine some games based on Atayal phonetics. To “warm up” the class, we firstly played two videos extracted from Youtube : the famous Inuit Throat Singing duet by Kathy Keknek and Janet Aglukkaq and the amazing interpretation by Jaap Blonk of “Ursonate”, composed by Kurt Schwitters. No need to say that the kids loved these extracts…

For our small exercises we asked Pawang to translate from Chinese to Atayal a short text we wrote, derivated from the story told by Bawnay Baesu. We extracted from this narration a few phonems that are specific to Atayal and don’t exist in Chinese Mandarin. We repeated them, the result being somewhere between sound poetry and war ritual :-).

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The Atayal text transcription :

mnanak na qalang
ki’an yan gwiloq na paris
qpatung ga bzywak
bzywak ga huzil
ihi’ ihi’ cila cila
hala ta’ qalang na Tayal

The Chinese version :

一個奇怪的地方
那裡有像草莓的敵人
(他們的)山豬是(我們的)青蛙
(我們的)山豬是(他們的)獵狗
唉呀!唉呀!快跑!快跑!
帶我們到太陽(人類)的世界

And the English translation :

A weird place,
There are some enemies who are like berries,
Their wild boards are frogs,
Their hunting dogs are wild boars,
Aya ! Run away ! Aya ! Run Away !
Bring me back to the world of the Sun.

Wan-Shuen and Yannick (拾景人) are starting a project in a very very complicated place, 寶藏嚴 (Treasure Hill in Taipei). Last Saturday was our first day and we participated to a very very strange event. Our proposal was to ask two questions to the numerous visitors :
- what is your first impression when arriving in Treasure Hill ?
- in the city where you live, what is the place you would really miss if it disappears ?
We got many answers, some were interesting, and the visitors were invited to stick it on the wall of our studio.
We still don’t know how will evolve our residency. We are deeply thinking about it…
Edit: forgot to mention that visitors who let they answer could chose a gift amongst a photo from an exhibition of Shejingren about ruins of Peng-Hu, a selection of short sound creations by Yannick or a poem written by Wan-Shuen.

That workshop involve observation of documents of the Atayal traditional weaving. This practice was once forbidden by the Japanese during the colonization era. Their aim was to eradicate Atayal culture, and they succeed to harm it. Later the Nationalist Government of Taiwan, the industrialization and social changes helped the slow vanishing of traditional activities. Weaving is an activity only for women and one must be skillfull in order to get the traditional facial tattoo. When a lady pass away, she’s judged by her ability before being accepted into the Ancestors realm, beyond the Rainbow. Weaving and hunting are extremely important in Gaga, the Atayal Ethic. Nowadays only some families still keep this knowledge. But in some villages, some workshops try to revive and share this fundamental aspect of Atayal Culture. One of the most successful is Yumataru in Miaoli County. In Taoshan area, the Mindouyou village also hosts a workshop.

The workshop we held with kids from 5th and 6th grade was to draw some patterns from traditional weaving. (27.09.2010)

Classes in Taoshan for visual interpretation of the story told by Bawnay Baesu.
1. Listening to the recordings of the story
2. Drawing animals involved in the story (frogs, dogs and boars)
3. Cutting and exchanging the heads of the animals

Workshop with 2nd and 3rd grade (23 and 24.09.2010)

Listening to a story in a language that you don’t understand. The words can’t describe anything. But the voice, the onomatopea provides images. This is what we discussed and recorded with very very young students… (14.09.2010)

On that night (13.09.2010), Dagun was guiding us on a old path. Ten years before he was spending a lot of time here. Nowadays, since he works in Taipei, he can’t come often. That night, we hoped to record night animals, but the only one which appeared was silent and deadly, a Green Bamboo Viper 青竹絲.
Finally we ended our walk with a short ritual for thanking the ancestors for that safe trip, a few words in Atayal and drops of alcohol on the floor. Suddenly a high-pitch call just nearby, Dagun jumped and we were all excited to see a White-faced Flying Squirrel (Petaurista alborufus lena). Its name is Yabi in Atayal. This beautiful animal stayed long time very close to us, sometimes climbing even closer. Here are the only pictures we could get with our inappropriate equipment.