Taiwan

No plant in the world is exotic. For the plants, we are foreign. The theme of Plant Wars concerns ‘exotic’ plants, ‘indigenous’ plants, ‘special’ plants and battles among them, as well as some of our ‘imaginations’ over the battles. Among the people in the stories, some climb the trees, some sing, some miss their deceased espouses, some live by the plants, some talk to the leaves, some grow trees, some hack trees and some cannot find a proper identify of community. Some of the battles are visible, yet more are invisible. We cannot recall their names. It is not because they are too foreign but they are too familiar. Not because they are too far, but too close.

Amis Hip Hop documents how a group of young Amis men in A’tolan have blended influences from contemporary social and cultural life in Taiwan with their traditional practice of ritual dance performance in the village. Rooted in the Amis ethos of respect for male age-grade organization, matrilineal affiliation, intimacy with the ocean, and appreciation of joking relationships, these young men also blend in elements of foreign fashion in music and dance all while keeping with traditional village aesthetics. Through their performances, they represent a new image to both locals and outsiders, and actively construct their local identity as A’tolan Amis.

When the expensive copper leads are stolen from the Lin’s family in Kaohsiung, everyone starts to panic and wants to catch the thief. Even the grand daughter, who hardly comes home, becomes a member of the squad. To her surprise, though, the family is asking deities to help the family look for the leads and the thief. After the weird experience of watching the grandmother talking to the deities, the grand daughter feels obliged to make a film about the stories between the Lin’s family and the deities.

I am Si Yabosokanen, nurse of Lanyu health center. In recent years, I have tried to feel how the tribes people confronted one’s aging, disease and death. I suddenly found a great difference between the phenomenon and the western medical concepts familiar to me. I began to realize tranquilly those maternal cultures totally unknown to me. At the moment, I recalled what my grandfather told me about his dream of his own death.

All the discussion over the White Terrors, be it in the books or in the images, takes largely the Hans as subjective and concerns less the treatment exerted on the Taiwanese aboriginals during the period of martial law. In an era of reticence, the aboriginals also followed suit in the fear of making even the slightest mistake which would lead to liquidation or even the detriment of the whole family.

The film intends to manifest through images the stories of the aboriginals oppressed by the White Terrors in the big time, in relation to the situations of their families, wives and children. The terrors experienced by the Taiwanese aboriginals are described through the stories of Lin Ruei-Chang, Lin Chao-Ming and Kao I-Sheng.