Amis are the most populous of Taiwan's 10 aborigine tribes. Their Cultural Village at Hualien on the east coast has become an important tourist attraction in recent years. The flight from Taipei takes only half an hour. A one-day trip combines a look at Ami song, dance, handicraft and way of life with a visit to scenic Taroko Gorge. Amis made their Harvest Festival into a public event this year and thousands attended. Hsu Yeh-yuan, a 20-year dancer who speaks four languages and is studying two more, was elected queen of the 3-day fete. Ami population is 70,000.
(File photo).
Dances are strong and rhythmical. The girls wear colorful costumes. Leggings reflect the tact that aborigines have been a mountain people until recent times with need to protect their legs from undergrowth. There are two theories about their origin. One holds they came from the Chinese mainland and are descendents of the Yueh Pu people who are supposed to have settled Malaysia and Indonesia. The other theory relates them to Micronesian peoples. Song and dance have a South Seas flavor. Melodies are excellent and often have turned out to be hits when set to words in Chinese and other languages. Aborigines retreated to the mountains when the Chinese began to settle the Taiwan plains in the 16th century. Most tribes are small and confined to Limited areas. The Amis occupy the east coast from Hualien to Taitung with a few on the other side of Taiwan.
(File photo).
Ami shows are given every day at Hualien. The Harvest Festival was more of the same but bigger. About 1,000 costumed dancers and singers turned out for the mass numbers (left). Girls of the Ami tribe are pretty and talented. Many have gone into show business as singers or dancers in recent years and done well. Some of the beauty contest contestants are shown with the queen in the picture at top left. The girl seated next to the queen is Chang Mei-huei, the runner-up, a 22-year-old student at Taiwan Normal University. "Orchestra" for the Ami dancing and singing is seen above. Drums are logs and the drumsticks are pestles. The "beat" gets a strong accent in Taiwan aborigine music and the dancing is spirited - more like that of Tahiti or Samoa than Hawaii but minus hip undulations. Both songs and dances tell of planting, hunting, love and war. A few of the songs make mention of the singers ancient home "across the seas." Amis welcome dance participation by their guests.
(File photo)
The tribes of Taiwan formerly fought each other with the principal objective of taking heads. Even now the men are excellent hunters and the government is beginning to place restrictions on the killing of Taiwan's dwindling wildlife. C. K. Yang, one of the greatest decathlon champions of all time, is an Ami. As seen here, men dancers wear tall feather headdresses, beads and sometimes necklaces of animal teeth. Bare feet and torsos are giving way to sneakers and T-shirts. Men and women dance together as well as separately. Deerskin drums are used in some numbers. Handclapping and bamboo clackers are other rhythm makers. The biggest problem of the aborigine men of today is a lack of brides. Although the aborigines have their reservations and are protected by the government, they are not confined to mountain areas. Girls are in such demand as singers and dancers that many go to the cities for good-paying jobs. There they may marry men of Chinese stock. Men also are free to leave but their lowland employment opportunities are not so good as those of the fair sex. Many of the aborigine peoples are Christians. Dutch missionaries converted some as early as the 1620s.
(File photo).
Ami society is clannish and matrilineal. A newlywed couple settles down in the wife's community. Marriage is arranged through an exchange of gifts. After the couple make their own exchange, he takes a log to the girl's home and she carries a kettle of water to his. The bridegroom carries off the bride on a chair fastened to his back, usually pursued by the friends of the bride in a gesture of "protecting" her. Into the 19th century, tribes raided each other for brides as well as for heads. Customs of the tribes are similar but with differing detail.