First steps for designing the map :
1. Finding some names for two anonymous rivers and some various spots on Qian Duan Qi 千段崎 (including sections of the old path, area nearby ruins of traditional houses, forests, etc.). 09.08.2010
2. Designing some stamps for these names. Workshop held on the 28.08.2010 under the supervision of Wan-Shuen Tsai would just learnt about this technique a few days ago…
Some pictures took on a old path (千段崎) in Nán-Kēng (南坑), Beipu (北埔), Hsinchu County (新竹縣).
Atelier Hui-Kan and the villagers of this community have a project to realize a map of this area. The path is 100 years old, it was covered by more than 1000 stones and led to fields and old houses. People left the traditional houses and fields, many stones were stolen, and some part of the path disappeared. This day, 29.08.2010, a friend (Feishu) helped us opening the track and we found back a section of the forgotten path. Recent activities concerning this project include imagining some names for two anonymous rivers, making stamps and papercuts for the design of the map, collecting sounds and images of the nature and of the traditional activities which relates to the daily life of this area…
(Feishu open the track and found the stones)
(old bowl found near the ruins of a house)
(old temple of Tu Di Gong in the forest)
(nature around the path is more than interesting !)
Beiguan (北管) is a Chinese music genre still surviving in Taiwan. Its origin is related to theater, but nowaday it is mostly instrumental, and if in the past most of the temple would host a Beiguan group, it is decreasing, and people who have interest in music are more concerned by Classical Western music or (even worse) Chinese National Music (國樂).
In the village of Nán-Kēng (南坑), in Hsinchu County, some elders were still practising until four years ago, then stopped rehearsing and performing. Last year we convinced them to reform, to record a CD and to perform for some events. It seemed to work at least for a moment, since they were invited to do a few other performances. This year we hope to include some of the recordings into a sound collection related to the life of Tian Tuan Qi, an old path which is nearly forgotten…
Below are some pictures of the last rehearsal.
Last year, our projects in communities, commissioned by Cultural Affairs of Hsinchu County, included a Hakka village nearby Beipu : Nán-Kēng (南坑). We had regular meetings and activities with the inhabitants, mainly older people who are treasures of knowledge about the local history and the agricultural past of this area. Their practices are still very rich and it was easy to catch their attention on it, wakening old gestures such as bamboo weaving, hand-cropping of ricefields and playing Beiguan music. We eventually released a book containing visual documentation of these events (some photos were shot by the elders themselves) and a CD devoted to the Beiguan group that we could convince to reform after four years of sleep…
This year, we are focusing on a old path, Qiān Duàn Qí 千段崎, which was once a very important road. Opened 100 years ago, it was constitued by stairs made in stone, more than 1000 pieces. It led to differents traditional houses and fields above the hills. Nowadays the path is almost forgotten, some stones have been burried or stolen. With the inhabitant we are trying to retrieve the history and stories about this old path. Write the anecdotes, document the nature around, record the sounds of the traditional practices which are related to the place, draw a map…
Bawnay Baesu is 67 year old Atayal living in Wulai and working in Mindouyou, two of the villages in the area of Taoshan. During his youth, he worked as a volunteer for a non-profit organization and had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with elder Atayal people, listening and learning quite a lot of things related to the traditions and culture of Atayal.
This day, 18.08.2010, he told us a fascinating story about a second world where frogs are boars and strawberries are foes.
We’ll translate it in English soon or later… 
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(recorded by Yannick Dauby - please don’t use without authorization)
On the facade of the oldest churches and cathedrals in Europe, one can see musicians holding various string instruments. Their attitude seem to us quite familiar : what an attitude ! Not unlike the classical guitar players, concentrated, sometimes in extasis. They may even remember us some guitar-heroes such as Steve Vai or BB King at the peak of their performances… Guitar has long history of hybridation and evolution. Adoption and adaptation. Integration and invasion. Even its name tells us the territories it had passed through : Sihtar (”three-stringed”) in Old Persian, Kithara in Ancient Greek, Cithara in Latin, Qitara in Andalusian Arabic, Guitarra in Spanish, Guitare in French, Gitarre in German, Guitar in English and Jita in Chinese Mandarin. From Middle-East to Europe to North-America and to most of the areas in the world, guitar is a extremely cosmopolite instrument.
Nowadays in Taiwan, most aborigines music can be interpreted in quite a Western way, using this instrument, connecting the indigenous ancestral songs into the American folk tradition. Aborigines musicians compose blues, rock, country music. Mouth-Harps and Nose-Flutes are (dis)regarded as treasures of identity in the best case, and symbols of tourism industry in the worst.
But let’s think a bit in term of music pleasure : mouth-harps and double flutes are are amazing instruments ! Atayal mouth-harp is one of the rarest in the world with its hybrid material, bamboo and copper, with its string and its multiple reeds. The music which can be played on this instrument are unique. Atayal mouth-harp plays Atayal music. Guitar-players who claim indigenous identity should therefore think a bit about their way to use their instrument: why being submissive to the stereotype of US-style music ? Even if this influence went through japanese and taiwanese songs, is there any way to imagine another way of playing ? A way of playing that would be more related to the use of wooden and bamboo percusion that are still practiced ? Following the traditional Atayal melodical scales, refering to the rythmic patterns found in music and dance, using the antiphonal or responsorial forms. A way of playing that would not impose western-style harmony to the melodies carried through generations . A way of playing that would even allow a dialogue with the sweetness and roughness of other traditional instruments. The “Atayal Guitar” needs to be imagined and invented. It needs to be played so the oldest songs may still exist amongst the younger musicians.
Some ideas for the intervention at Tao-Shan Elementary School, Wufeng, Xinzhu County. Read about the context of this project here.
This project is directed towards the kids of a school located in the mountains, in an Atayal aborigine village. The aim is multiple :
- Let them experience an artistic creation process
- Let them learn about listening and sound
- Let them imagine other aspects of music
- Let them think about their own culture
So far we discussed about four ideas, kind of workshops that would be spread over 4 months of pedagogic interventions.
1. Mouth Harp
Atayal have a very special musical instrument : a mouth-harp based on metal and bamboo material, used with a string and which can have several reeds. We are trying to gather informations about this instrument and to compare it to other kinds of mouth-harp like those from Japan’s Ainu, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mongolia. This is an ongoing workshop which will start by a DIY workshop in order to document the process of making an instrument. It will be followed by in-site and in-door recording session, class about the instruments and collecting interviews and documentation about it.
2. Atayal Phonetics
Atayal language belongs to austronesian family. Its structure and sound material is extremely different from the Chinese Mandarin which is spoken now by the kids. Some phonems cause problems to the kids who can’t pronunce it correctly. We’ll make a game of this phonetic issue. Inspired by Sound Poetry from Raul Hausmann or Jaap Blonk, we’ll create scores only based on Atayal phonetics. The kids might draw themselves their own graphical scores and interpret them. The differents steps of this workshop will be recorded and often we’ll listen to the recordings, using them as a new way of playing.
3. Myth & Narration
Looking back for the myths of Atayal, old stories related to the nature or the landscape. We’ll start by collecting one or a few stories and try to find some themes or topics that we can extend with the children : imagining and expanding the context of these story-items, drawing them or creating parallel narrations. This will be done in Chinese Mandarin but we’ll try to focus on a few Atayal words : names of characters or toponyms, words refering to the items.
4. Listening and Imitating Nature Sounds
Birds, insects, rain and river sounds : what are the names of all these sounds, name in Chinese and in Atayal, what are the stories associated with these sounds.
We’ll do some games of sound imitation. At first we’ll listen to sound recordings, closed eyes or even with blindfolds. We’ll try to describe the sounds. Then we’ll imitate them by whistling, by singing, by whispering. If necessary, for bird songs for examples, we can slow down the recordings for revealing its melody. Sometimes we’ll use Atayal xylophone, in a completlely different way of the rythmic patterns : to play this instrument like raindrops, or like bamboos creaking under the wind. Sometimes we’ll use some natural found objects, like dried leaves or snails shells, stones and branches. Some parts of this workshop will be held in collaboration with the choir class, designing a score for vocal imitations of nature.
Atelier Hui-Kan started last year a collaboration with the TáoShān Elementary School, in Wufong Township, Taiwan.
The school is located in Atayal Aborigine area. The school gather children from the villages around. This school is well-known for quite unusual reason : there is a choir of children which performed in Taiwan and USA, and released two CDs which have been appreciated. If the children are regularly performing with their Atayal-style clothes, the music and way of singing is obviously based of western classical music.
We are invited to work in this area by the Cultural Affairs of Hsinchu County, for a “Art in the Communities” project. We chose to collaborate with one of the very few Atayal teacher of the school, who has great interest into Atayal cutlure and linguistics and who is leading a class for traditional Atayal music. This class involve the traditional songs, the wooden percussion, and the Atayal mouth harp. Classical western vocal music and Traditional Atayal music are the two main references for these children, but one should not forget their favourite music style : Taiwanese Rap !
Firstly we organized in November and December 2009 some listening sessions for the children : playing sounds of nature, traditional music from various indigenous people of the world, a bit of experimental music, discussing about the context of different form of musics. The response of the children were surprising with a great success of Inuit vocal games and Jaap Blonk sound poetry !
This year, our intention is to make a musical creation involving different aspect of Atayal culture. The aim is to involve the children and other people of the surrounding into the publication of a CD which could represent another aspect of Taoshan.
During this Summer, we are collecting some documents and interviews about Atayal in Taoshan. Recording of old stories from elder, making some mouth-harp, following a hunter on a track… We’ll keep this blog updated with some extracts of these experiences…
Wikipedia page about Atayal people.
See on a map where is TáoShān Elementary School.
See a few pictures (chinese text only) of the previous listening session.
彎一. 尋找白海豚
首先
是一排風力發電機組
矗立於破折出海
的水泥長堤後方
接著是以自由為名的貿易港
和緊緊與它相依的大儲油槽
然後是石化工廠巨型煙囪
用無數生命殘骸作為燃料
而視線與海平面的交界地帶
排隊進港的超級貨輪運載著
島嶼人民的日需, 汗水, 與期待
以及更多不斷自我繁殖增生與
自我突變的欲念
原來, 貪婪是可以量化的。
它是銳減的漁獲和日增的黑煙
它是包圍80隻白色流線型哺乳動物的人類世界
它是我眼前所見 ！
原來愚蠢也是可以量化的
它將是又一片被賤賣的濕地
它將是又一座擲向海的消坡塊
它將是又一個
被我們歡樂的胃液消滅的物種
原來海岸也早已被簡化
它所孕育出的無數生機
比不上開發藍圖上一條
凌厲至極的輪廓線
然後我看到石化工廠的巨型煙囪
自高處吞吐這一切
用無數的生命殘骸作為燃料
用短線的經濟毒塵說服選票
從看不到白海豚的
這片海面上望向它, 驚覺
它比我們, 離西岸的天空更近
它比我們, 與國家的信仰更親
彎二. 白海豚莫來
白海豚不要來
這片荒蕪的惜別的海岸
白海豚不要來,
岸邊有連綿無盡的銅牆鐵壁
上下塗滿了貪婪的毒液
白海豚, 不要來
這裡現在叫做寶島
短短數百年,
住滿了漢化的人-敬天畏祖, 師法自然
白海豚, 或許你會想發笑, 這是
一道再簡單不過的命題：
2千3百萬與80 …
白海豚你
是否也和我一樣
聽過雲豹的傳說 ？
穿過萬能的人群, 是否
感覺到自己與牠們
那荒謬可悲的關連 ？
白海豚你
千萬不要來,
因為島上住著的人類碌碌終日
並不珍惜他們後代與你的緣份
白海豚不要來
你的鄰居不歡迎你
你的鄰居想掠奪你
這土地上的代理人
在監守自盜
白海豚 不要來
白海豚 不要來…
彎三. 海平面上下
當最後一尾台灣鬥魚
在水渠裡翻了肚
爸爸正昏昏睡進
午後燥熱的雍塞車陣中
當最後一群媽祖魚從
落日的浪花底下
探出頭來, 流著涙
頻頻巡視
母親正用新買的10元大紅塑膠桶
為她的寶貝金孫
細細溫柔
洗淨身軀, 啊…
向晚的風
從海上來
手心手背。
手心手背, 心肝寶貝。
初稿 27. 06.2010 台中-苗栗 海上
同時發表於白海豚的小小世界
相關文字：為甚麼要白海豚自己學會轉彎？
- 每隻鯨魚的死亡遺留給我們的 - 如同一個神籲 - 是我們自身的死亡影像。- 克力思.馬克爾 ( Chris Marker, 法國電影作者)
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我的膚色常吸引周遭的目光。一位先生突然靠近，問了幾個我其實不太懂的問題，一對年輕男女的目光斜斜地掃過我。有一天，有個山上的孩子甚至直接用他的小手摸按著我的雙下巴。在這裡，我白色的身體是一種記號，一個象徵。在這些狀況下，我對這些人而言，代表著他們所自以為的西方世界 - 如果這樣一個世界果真存在的話。所幸一段時間後，因為開始懂了一些這裡的語言，讓我得以一點一點地跨出這個身體，並讓觀看我的人們感覺到，我所生活的個人世界是真實存在的。而且這個世界比他們所臆想的還來得複雜得多，就像每個人所建構的個人世界一樣：一個由許多參照物，感官和感覺經驗，思想… 所組成的世界，在這樣的個人世界裡，每件事物都扮演一個以上的角色，並且擁有它自己存在的理由。
對我們來說，白海豚的存在可能只不過是我們有時看到有時沒看到的，一個大海裡的身體。人們花好幾個小時的時間在海面上等待，直到有些人開始想吐或頭暈…。如果牠(或牠們)出現了，這個白色的身軀就很快轉變成成許多影像。就像所有呈現動物身體的影像一樣，多數都會被拍攝下來，接著命名，附上拍攝者姓名，流通或售出，重新調整尺寸和色差，進行分析比較然後建檔收藏。
今天，沒有關於這些白色身軀的影像產生。
不過，我試著去想像白海豚的世界。那是一個奇特的空間維度：牠可以在一個三度立體空間中移動，但又完完全全地依賴那片二度水平的表面，並且定時要穿越這個表面去呼吸。由於白海豚所認識的地面多是由沙子組成，因此這個世界的水有些混濁。水的濁度也會受出海口河水所帶來的懸浮物所影響。颱風季的時候，有時這片海域表面甚至會鋪滿漂流木。這是個無盡的世界，由活跳跳的和游動的食物賦予它生命力。而我們，人類，幾乎不瞭解組成和支撐著這個世界的種種元素。從一隻海豚的角度來看，究竟一艘巨型的貨輪，一個漁人的大網，一片有毒液體的流動，和一個浮動的寶特瓶，對牠而言又代表了甚麼呢？我們完全不得而知。然而我們卻比鄰而居，那些白海豚生活在離我們如此近的地方，甚至就在海岸線旁！從前，有些船員和漁人會在海岸附近遇見牠們，有時會遇到一大群。白海豚們不知道海岸上和河流出海口近年來發生的種種遽變，而我們裝作不明白這些開發所帶來的巨大影響。白海豚的生存不被石化工業和漁業所認可，這不到80之的白色身軀或許將在不久後不再出現，或許牠們正一點一點地，被迫自地表上消跡。
總之今天，我們正因為牠們已變得如此稀少，而無法看到牠們的身影。
在其它地方，有些其它種類的海豚被簡化成單純的肉：就像其它被人們所食用的動物身體，海豚們被當成單純的蛋白質來源，或者為了牠們特殊的味道。也有一些被留下性命，加以訓練成為以趣味性和遊戲性的目的而被觀賞的物體。對這些被迫生活在一個封閉和貧瘠狹小世界的海豚而言，擁有發出聲納的生存能力，竟變成了一個詛咒。
鯨豚的身體穿越了分隔我們與牠們的那片二維邊界。我們雖然有時可以見到牠們，但是牠們的話語卻無法跨越身體之外，我們也因此難以瞭解牠們的生活。只有人類所應該具備的語言能力和智慧，能夠在這個關於身體和形像的荒謬故事的最後，改變一點甚麼。
維繫住這個圍繞著我們的世界的生命，來避免我們自己的世界變得越來越貧瘠。
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台中梧棲港“尋找白海豚蹤影“行後記 Yannick 27.06.2010