Earlier this year, the Ministry of Culture announced the addition of four festivals to its list of designated major national folk customs. These are the Kinmen City God Parade; the paSta’ay rites of the Saisiyat tribe in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties; the Night Festival of the Siraya people in Tainan County’s Kabua Sua Township; and the four pilgrimage seasons of the Royal Lords residing in Nankunshen Temple, Beimen District, Tainan City.
This brought the total number listed by the MOC to 14, as 10 other customs had been selected between 2008, when the list was started, and last year.
Foreign interest in some of the customs added this year already seems to be increasing. In January the California-based Los Angeles Times carried an article about the paSta’ay rites of the Saisiyat tribe, one of this year’s listed customs. During the rites, the tribe pays tribute to the ghosts of a departed race of legendary dark-skinned pygmies.
Tribal folklore claims that centuries ago the pygmies were the original inhabitants of the area, and taught the Saisiyat much of what they know about farming. However, the pygmy men lusted after the tribe’s women, and the Saisiyat eventually lost patience and slaughtered them all, and have been obliged to placate their spirits ever since.
According to the MOC’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage, the list was created in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act. “The act requires local governments to conduct a census of folk cultural assets,” said Chang Ya-jane, a senior official in the BOCH’s Division of Traditional and Folk Art. “It is from this list of registered folk customs that candidates are chosen to be designated as important.”
Chang said that the major point of the list is “to assist in the recording, preservation and maintenance of these important folk customs, so that they can be passed down to future generations to conserve intangible cultural heritage and promote its sustainable development.”
So far, 101 customs have been identified by local governments, the BOCH said. Three criteria are used to determine inclusion on the basic list. The historical transmission and content of the custom must exhibit the special nature of living popular culture. Customs, long-standing religious beliefs and festivals that have special artistic value are qualify for inclusion, as do folk arts with significant local character that originated in Taiwan, or which have been significantly changed after arriving in the country, and which have major impact on people’s daily lives.
Although four customs were added to the “important list” this year, the bureau said it has no hard and fast rules as to how many are added each year. “Designation of a custom as important is up to a specially convened committee of experts,” Chang said. “There are no specific limits on numbers; it is just a question of importance.”
The 10 customs added previously include the Keelung Mid-Summer Ghost Festival; Zaiguaxiang Rite in Tainan City’s Xigang District; Makotaay harvest festival of the Amis tribe in Hualien County; Mayasvi war ceremony of the Tsou tribe in Alishan; and three different Mazu processions.
The extensive list also means there is no shortage of future candidates. “Local governments have already registered 101 folk customs, proof of the abundance and diversity of Taiwan’s folk traditions,” Chang said. “The work of identifying and listing these customs continues, as part of efforts to preserve the nation’s precious folk heritage.”
The MOC is also keen to promote Taiwan’s cultural diversity, and more aboriginal rites are being promoted to the list of important customs. In the first four years, only two of the 10 selected customs were aboriginal, but two of the four selected this year were.
Foreign experts see this as a sign that the government is taking the island’s aboriginal heritage more seriously. “Attention to aboriginal culture has increased,” said Christian Jochim, professor of comparative religious studies and chair of the Humanities Department at San Jose State University, California, who has published extensively on Taiwan’s folk customs. Jochim added that there might be many reasons for this.
According to Jochim, “the ROC government has been changing its attitude toward culture for over two decades, from promoting ‘Chinese’ culture and the myth of Confucian China to promoting appreciation of local culture in Taiwan.”
But talking to the BOCH, it seems clear that the major impetus comes from a similar listing maintained by UNESCO. “UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted to promote cultural diversity, and preservation of important aboriginal customs is part of the bureau’s work in accordance with UNESCO’s objectives,” Chang said.
The UNESCO list has more than 200 masterpieces of cultural heritage, with traditional performing arts and craft skills included, along with customs and religious practices. Asian countries are some of the most heavily represented, especially Japan, South Korea and mainland China. The ROC is not a UNESCO member, and this has allowed mainland China to lay claim to many aspects of traditional Chinese culture that it shares with Taiwan, such as Chinese calligraphy, the Mazu festival and customs, and the Dragon Boat Festival.
Although the UNESCO list serves as an inspiration, the BOCH list of folk customs is by no means identical. “The ROC is not a member of the UN, so it cannot apply to have its folk customs registered on the UNESCO intangible heritage list,” Chang said. “But preservation of such heritage is still an important task, and creation of this list allows the public to appreciate the value of traditional culture, helping to sustain and transmit it.”
The bureau hopes that listing will boost interest in these customs. For customs that have not been listed, the bureau said they will remain free to develop, and it has no objection to promoting them for tourists.
“This listing should create more interest among foreigners,” said Paul Katz, an American research fellow at the Taipei City-based Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History, who specializes in the interaction between Chinese religion and local society. He added that the government should promote the customs by circulating the list via social media such as Facebook.
Jochim agreed it will boost interest in Taiwan’s religious practices. “If tourists begin viewing these kinds of activities, they will find them exciting and tell others about them. Listing them is a starting point.”
As yet there is little danger of these festivals being smothered by swarms of foreign tourists, despite the obvious fascination of rites centered on mythical pygmies.
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