Taiwan Today

Search hard enough, and one might find a Paiwan aboriginal house in southern Taiwan that still preserves a small part of the traditional stone-plate construction. Travel to central Taiwan and with some luck, the observant may come across an old Saisiat barn that is made of bamboo. Alternatively, however, a trip to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village in Yuchi Township, Nantou County can save all the traveling and searching. "We've got them all here in their original styles and with the traditional techniques and materials," says Joy Huang, a specialist in the aboriginal village's Department of Planning.

In the park's aboriginal area, each of Taiwan's indigenous peoples has its own "territory," where the houses and other structures are either transplanted from tribal areas or modeled after authentic buildings. Inside the constructions, daily utensils, tools and weapons are placed where they are supposed to be, and waxwork figurines of aborigines performing ceremonies or daily routines are also in place. Some of the structures have become the sole survivors of their kinds in Taiwan as modern building materials and techniques have replaced traditional ones in tribal areas.

Chang Jung-i, the founder and president of Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, built the park as a place to both preserve and teach about Taiwan's aboriginal heritage. Chang is not of aboriginal descent, but one of his ancestors served as a negotiator between the Qing dynasty court and local tribal representatives to open an area for Chinese settlers to cultivate, as Taiwan came under Qing control from 1683 to 1895. Building and operating an aboriginal theme park, in a sense, is a way for Chang to remember his ancestor's achievement.

When the construction, which took about four years to complete, started in 1982, there were already not too many traditional-style aboriginal buildings left. And as Taiwan's focus was then on economic development, research into and preservation of aboriginal culture were rare. The most important reference source for building the aboriginal park therefore came in the person of Chijiiwa Suketarou (1897-1991), a Japanese scholar who pioneered studies of Taiwan's native architecture during Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945.

Historical Record

Chijiiwa visited indigenous tribes throughout the island between 1930 and 1947 and took thousands of pictures of the native residents' housing before he was forced to return to Japan. The photos were kept by Taiwanese artist Yen Shui-long (1903-1997), who was a close friend of the Japanese scholar. Yen provided the materials to the head architect of the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village and introduced him to Chijiiwa, who paid several visits to the construction site.

In addition to the constructions and displays, the village's planners also organize live shows featuring aboriginal dance, songs and rituals at the Naruwan Theater and the Formosan Aborigines Square. Each of the tribes also has its own "live museum" in its territory in the park. For example, in front of a long open cabinet filled with skulls, which the Paiwan people believe to have the power of scaring away their enemies and blessing their descendants, visitors are welcome to participate in a Paiwan blessing ceremony and bring home a whole year's good luck. Visitors can also try their hand at making aboriginal crafts like glass beads or beverages such as millet wine, before they head to the Culture Square for the aboriginal farewell dance. According to Huang, there are about a dozen shows performed in the park.

These shows, souvenir shops and other facilities in the tribal area are maintained by the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village's 100-some aboriginal employees, who constitute about a third of the theme park's total workers. Indigenous people who apply to work at the village are required to take courses and undergo training to perform on stage. Besides performing, they also have to learn more about their tribal culture and do research before eventually becoming guides. Senior aboriginal employees work at the village houses, demonstrating their skill at carving, weaving and pottery.

In addition to the aboriginal scenes, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village also has a European Palace Garden where tourists can enjoy Roman fountains and a Gothic bell tower, or ride the garden train among the trees and flowers there. "While preserving aboriginal culture, we're also providing a spacious venue for people to enjoy their leisure time," says general manager T.L. Hong, who has worked at the village since it was under construction.

The 62-hectare Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village had its grand opening in the summer of 1986 and immediately became one of the must-see destinations in central Taiwan. Hong says that this success came because the economy was growing and people started to have a little money and time to spare. "There weren't a lot of leisure activities to choose from, so visiting scenic spots pretty much became how everyone spent their leisure time," he says. "We're only 20 minutes' drive away from Sun Moon Lake, which sees millions of tourists a year, so it wasn't a whole lot of trouble to drop by and take a look."

Changing Times

The well-planned aboriginal village and European garden kept business satisfactory for several years, but things began to change in the 1990s. New amusement parks like Janfusun Fancyworld in Yunlin County introduced visitors to large facilities offering more thrilling rides such as roller coasters and free-falls, and older parks like Window on China in Taoyuan County soon followed suit. "It started to become a diversified market where different people have different expectations for theme parks," Hong says. "You either stayed with what you had and watched business go down or invested to add new stuff to catch up." Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village made its choice in 1992, when it started to invest in indoor and outdoor amusement facilities.

Most of the equipment for these facilities is imported from Europe and may cost up to several billion NT dollars. Furthermore, the actual investment in installing a new amusement facility and getting it running, Hong adds, is usually twice as much as buying the machinery itself. Take the village's Maya Adventure, a suspended roller coaster that started running in 1998. For Hong, the fun part is that a Mayan city was built around the ride to create an environment and atmosphere that can bring guests a "Mayan experience." "Such an environment and atmosphere are what make a theme park what it is," Hong says. "Without them, it'd have been just another suspended looping coaster ride instead of a Maya Adventure."

The strategy managed to bring Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village as many as 1.2 million visitors a year, according to Hong. Not long after the opening of the Maya Adventure, however, the theme park's business--or rather that of all Taiwan's theme parks--was seriously damaged by the massive earthquake that shook the island on September 21, 1999. The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village re-opened about a month after the earthquake but, as expected, attracted very few guests. Hong recalls that there were 10 visitors at most on a weekday and 50 on weekends and holidays during this period. "Still, we had to keep the doors open and machines running, or the rumor that we were down for good would start to spread," he says.

Through various marketing strategies such as working with travel agencies on a "sending love to help the disaster areas" campaign and coordinating with the Sakura Festival since 2002, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village has gradually regained visitors. The latest project Hong thinks will boost visitor numbers is the construction of a gondola that runs from Sun Moon Lake to the park. The gondola, scheduled to begin operating by the end of the year, will be able to carry 3,000 passengers per hour and is expected to shorten travel time between the two places, which for drivers can range from between 20 minutes to seemingly forever during traffic jams, to just six to 10 minutes.

Statistics from the Tourism Bureau show that since 2001, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village has attracted between 500,000 and nearly 1 million visitors annually. While the numbers are not necessarily accurate, according to Hong, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, though never the first, has always been among the top five of Taiwan's theme parks in terms of visitor numbers. "We try to stay in the game by expanding our 'themes' to meet different market demands," he says. "People from 8 to 80 can all find ways to enjoy themselves here."

Market Casualties

Not all of Taiwan's parks with a cultural theme, however, have been able to stay competitive when confronted with market changes. The Taiwan Folk Village in Huatan Township, Changhua County, for example, has experienced a major decline. As its name indicates, the village focuses on Taiwanese culture. It houses about 100 Taiwanese-style constructions including private houses and public buildings that were either transplanted intact from their original locations or rebuilt to the original specifications. In the past, there were also regularly scheduled demonstrations of traditional crafts and performances of folk music, opera and ritual ceremonies, but these performances are now held only on special occasions such as the Lunar New Year holidays. Today, as part of the park's effort to become more competitive, foreign circuses are invited to perform and give shows every day, and some amusement facilities and a water park have been opened for younger visitors.

After its opening in 1993, Taiwan Folk Village enjoyed more than 100,000 annual visitors for some years, but only attracted between 30,000 and 50,000 per year in the past three years. "Culture--aboriginal, Taiwanese or Hakka--is no longer a selling point unless very well packaged," says Peng Fu-zong, head of the management unit of Shangrila Paradise, a medium-sized park in Zaoqiao, Miaoli County that combines entertainment and Hakka culture. "It's great if we can teach visitors something about a culture, but quite frankly, people come to have fun, not to get lectured."

Shangrila opened 19 years ago and now occupies an area of 33 hectares that features a European garden, a water park equipped with water slides, outdoor spa pool and bubble spa, some basic amusement facilities, and stunt shows and circus performances. In the view of the park's planners, Shangrila's highlight was supposed to be its Hakka village based on a traditional Hakka design, along with its works of embroidery and tools and other items used in daily life and for farming. Visitors have their own ideas, however, and Peng admits that on average, only one or two percent of Shangrila's guests visit the Hakka culture area, and that the only times the area sees more traffic is on special occasions such as during the Lunar New Year holidays, when the park's other areas are packed with visitors. "I guess they're here to get some fresh air since everywhere else is too crowded," Peng says of tourists in the culture area. Similarly, in the past Shangrila offered demonstrations and DIY projects in which visitors could make Hakka cakes and tea, as well as live performances of Hakka dances and music, but the projects and performances were cancelled after failing to attract much visitor interest.

The theme park had its heyday from the middle to late 1990s. However, many people visited Shangrila just for the purpose of watching the filming of a popular television outdoor game show on its grounds instead of enjoying the facilities of the park itself, and the crowds were gone after the show ended in 1998. In recent years, Shangrila has received about 200,000 visitors a year, which brings in just about enough income to make ends meet. Peng admits that the park's present facilities are not sufficient to attract repeat visitors, so Shangrila is forced to continually come up with new marketing ideas.

One of the more successful promotional campaigns was the Miaoli International Mask Festival, which was organized by the county government and began in 1999. Shangrila started working with the local government to provide a site to host the festival in 2003 and brought in more than 100,000 visitors during the two months of the event. "Those were some of the occasions when it got too crowded elsewhere and people were forced into the Hakka culture area," Peng says.

The cooperation with the county government, however, ended in 2006 as masks lost their attractiveness for visitors after several years, and Peng once again had to come up with new marketing ideas. In the past several years, the theme park has launched several successful strategies such as developing areas where people can camp and barbeque--both activities other theme parks do not allow. It also sells package tickets to Miaoli residents that allow unlimited admission to the park for four members of a family within a year for NT$999 (US$30). Other ticket packages are offered through television shopping channels that, according to Peng, have increased ticket sales by 10 percent. "The strategy is to avoid competing against large theme parks, where the main visitors are young people between 15 and 25," he says. "In other words, we target a different market such as local residents, campers and other 'minorities.'"

Off the Map

In theory, amusement parks with such local cultural themes could be places worth visiting for inbound foreign tourists. In practice, however, foreign tourist numbers have never reached a significant level for the parks. The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village does manage to attract some Korean and Japanese visitors during its Sakura Festival, and occasionally sees some foreign guests at other times. Shangrila, meanwhile, has never been on the map for foreign tourists. Taiwan's recent opening to mainland Chinese tourist groups has also not helped boost the number of foreign visitors to either of the parks.

Hong of the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village thinks that mainland Chinese tourists will create more business for his park in the future when they are allowed to travel to Taiwan individually. Under current regulations, however, they are required to travel in groups, and a theme park is not one of their destinations for one simple reason: admission fees. "Travel agencies do their best to cut costs, thus increasing their profit margin, so they don't take mainland tourists to any place that charges an admission fee," Hong says. "While every mainland tourist visits Sun Moon Lake, none of them comes here."

With or without mainland tourists, however, cultural theme parks are generally optimistic about the future. Peng believes that as Taiwan's society progresses, more and more value is being placed on local culture. Hong says that visiting the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is like one-stop shopping--while having fun at an amusement park, people can also enjoy insight into a unique culture and experience the collective wisdom of some of Taiwan's early inhabitants.

Write to Jim Hwang at jim@mail.gio.gov.tw