Taiwan Aboriginal Dance

Video Find of the Day

I was already against the Vietnam War before it was called a war, in 1962, when I was 13. One of the experiences that informed me and led to my opposition to the war at the stage was having lived as an Army Brat in Taiwan at age 8 and having seen that almost no one in our military, including intelligence officers (who were the people I listened to, since they were the people around my Father), appreciated the fact that Taiwan was not a monolithic culture. The rulers and the middle classes were mostly Chinese, at that time, but much of the lower classes were indigenous Taiwanese.

We weren't at war in Taiwan, but could have been. I couldn't see how you could dare fight a war with that kind of blindness. The level of arrogance! We had officers assigned and paid to inform our generals of circumstances on the island who couldn't even be bothered to learn the players! I only once heard one Major acknowledge the existence of any significant population on the island other than Chinese and Americans.

[Upper right: a map from Wikipedia showing the traditional territories of some identified tribes of Taiwan. Modern migrations have altered the picture. Many have moved to the cities, where they have experienced unemployment levels comparable to that of urban Native Americans.]

Here's a video of Taiwanese aboriginal dancing, filmed in a park in Hualien City, which is a third the way down the eastern coast, where the sun rises from the ocean.

Dancing in the park