Mayaw Biho: Calculated to please nobody

Mayaw Biho, an Aboriginal rights activist, says he has no political agenda, yet campaigns for the use of Aboriginal names; he documents the lives of marginalized people, yet says he doesn't care whether their traditions live or die

Mayaw Biho, filmmaker PHOTO: IAN BARTHOLOMEW, TAIPEI TIMES

Mayaw Biho (馬躍比吼) is one of Taiwan's most prolific Aboriginal documentary filmmakers with over 20 films, varying in length from around 10 minutes to over an hour, and many unfinished projects awaiting funding to his name. At 37, he has created more than enough work to annoy the powers-that-be both in the government, as well as within the Aboriginal establishment. He attributes this to his refusal to take sides. "I simply record what I see," he said.

This is, perhaps, an understatement, for Mayaw Biho admits to a broad social agenda that relates to the empowerment of Aboriginal peoples through a greater understanding of their culture and unique identity. His campaign for the use of Aboriginal names has received the most attention in recent years, and he has repeatedly denounced the government for its petty bureaucratic obstructionism on this issue. He also accepts that elders within Aboriginal communities have played their part in hindering the reversion to Aboriginal names. "If they agree [to the name rectification], this suggests that what they have been doing for all these decades has been wrong," he said, stating his position in a way calculated to please nobody.

A scene from Mayaw Biho's first film, Children in Heaven, which documents Aboriginal family life. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TIEFF

Although Mayaw Biho uses his Aboriginal name almost exclusively, and relates closely to his identity as a member of the Pangcah community, which he regards as the correct designation for the Amis, his own ancestry is mixed. His father is Han Chinese, while his mother is Pangcah. "I come from a mixed background, so I never saw things from just a single perspective," he said. "When I was young, the things my father told me would usually fit in with what my teachers taught me at school, but when I grew up, the stuff I found interesting - that was closer to me - was from my mother's side ... . So in my work, I avoided mainstream ideas, and tried out different ways of looking at things. It can be a hard road, but I am determined to follow it, because it is also where you can find happiness and enjoyment."

Before becoming a filmmaker, Mayaw Biho worked as a photographer. While serving in the navy, he recorded the doings of various high-ranking military officials. "My access to these officials, the way they acted, was all about special privilege. It was another world completely, and I felt that it was very unfair," he said.

Another experience that struck him as unfair came after he completed military service and was studying at Shih Hsin University (世新大學). On a photo expedition to Taitung, he teamed up with a number of hobbyists who wanted to take photos of Aboriginal people in their full ceremonial regalia. "They brought a couple of bottles of rice wine and some cans of coffee ... . They asked a number of old women if they minded being photographed. The woman were delighted to be asked, but this whole situation made me feel uncomfortable ... . That we were able to conclude such a transaction with a couple of bottles of rice wine [seemed wrong], and the photos we took were fake. And the fact that the old women were so delighted to pose made me even more uncomfortable."

One of Mayaw Biho's first projects, Children in Heaven (天堂小孩), remains an important artistic and political statement. Only 13 minutes long, but combining material taken over three years, the film is a visual chronicle of an Aboriginal community that lived under the Sanying Bridge (三鶯大橋) in Taipei County. Their homes were demolished repeatedly by the government, but the group persisted in rebuilding. The only commentary is provided by children, and the images are set to the soulful strains of Kimbo Hu (胡德夫) singing Am I in Heaven? (不不歌). The short film drips with irony, and though very different from his later, more conventional documentary films, it shows Mayaw Biho's disinclination to obtrude himself into his films.

"It's much easier if other people do the talking," he said half jokingly.

On a more serious note, he added that he rejects the device of the voice-over to direct the perceptions of audiences. He is content to record, and focuses on many mundane aspects of the Aboriginal experience, building up a multi-layered picture of communities. One of his subjects is the Makutaay community, which feature in one of his best-known works, Dear Rice Wine, You Are Defeated (親愛的米酒妳被我打敗了). "There are only 200 to 300 people in that community, but I have already been able to make seven or eight films about different aspects of their life," he said.

"I am a regular presence," he said. "They even find it odd now when I am not carrying around my recording equipment." But his experience of how the media can manipulate the subjects that it purports to record have proved decisive in determining his cinematic technique, and his determination not to take sides. "I am only responsible for passing on the message of others," he said. "If they have disagreements, I let them have their say."

"A tribal elder rebuked me for making this film. ... But for me, the ceremonial use of wine and drinking in daily life are different issues. The use of wine in this instance has a deep cultural significance, and even though I am not a big drinker, I still support [heavy drinking during certain festivals]. This is a record, and a way of raising awareness of our culture," the filmmaker said. "I cannot be bothered to participate in their meetings about what we should and shouldn't do. I simply record. I don't even care that much whether the ceremonies are preserved."

In addition to making films, Mayaw Biho is active in promoting another trend in ethnographic filmmaking: screening films by Aboriginal filmmakers in the local communities where they were made. "It's not much point just showing them on television, for many of the mountain communities along the east coast don't have reception," he said, but in this, as with filmmaking, funding is a constant issue.

"If you don't support their [the government's] agenda for the Aborigines, it is difficult to get funding," he said. "For someone like myself, it is almost impossible to get funding from the Council of Indigenous Peoples (原民會)." The Cabinet-level agency tasked with promoting the interests of Taiwan's Aborigines is often perceived as a collaborator and toady to a broader Han Chinese agenda. "Most local documentary filmmakers will not touch politically sensitive issues. Just look at the films made about the 921 Earthquake (in 1999). It is all about the human spirit overcoming disaster, not about how government mismanagement added to the suffering. This is the really disgusting thing about documentary filmmaking in Taiwan."

A favorite target of Mayaw Biho's criticism is Taiwan Indigenous TV, established in 2004 to cater to the Aboriginal community. Lauded as Asia's first television station for Aboriginal people, it is criticized by Mayaw Biho for avoiding all the real issues. He attributes this to the lack of an independent perspective. "In order to get through school, most of the Aboriginal kids working in media have had to give the wrong answers. If they responded with an Aboriginal perspective, they would never graduate. By the time they start working, they are well trained. They know exactly how far they can go."

Mayaw Biho, despite a constant and increasingly difficult fight for funding, hopes that he can go further.

Two of Mayaw Biho's films, Carry the Paramount of Jade Mountain on My Back (揹起玉山最高峰) and Dear Rice Wine, You Are Defeated (親愛的米酒,妳被我打敗了) will be screened at the Majestic Theater (真善美戲院), located at 7F, 116 Hanzhong St, Taipei (台北市漢中街116號7樓) tomorrow at 9:20pm as part of the Taipei International Ethnographic Film Festival. Tickets are NT$160 and are available at the door.

Published in Taipei Times
Sunday, Sep 30, 2007, Page 18

Caught in a net of 7-Elevens

Bicycles become gym equipment.
Originally uploaded by ianish2005

A project by staff and students of the Shih Chien University School of Design has created some unexpected adornments to Taipei's busy streets

Walking in the area around the Mingde (明德) MRT station in Beitou or in Gongguan (公館) around the National Taiwan University (國立台灣大學) campus, you might happen upon some peculiar ornamentation that he appeared in some disused or public spaces in the vicinity of 7-Eleven convenience stores. Along Dingzhou Road (丁州路), there is a posterized image of baseball hero Wang Jian-ming (王建明) made from paper cups inserted in a wire fence, and further down, a block of motorcycle parking spaces have been blocked off with milk crates and peculiar contraptions made from disused bicycles adorn the sidewalk.
"You're not really meant to see than until you come upon them (the bicycles)," said Tseng Wei (曾瑋), an architect from Taichung who also teachers at the College of Design at the Shih Chien University (實踐大學). "It is supposed to inspire a new way of looking at how urban space can be used." There is a handbook hanging from a nearby signpost describing how the contraptions, which looks like highly dangerous gym equipment, can be used.
This installation is one of eight that is part of a project called 7-Eleven City: Poetry, Architecture, New Communities that is partially funded by the President Group (統一) that owns the 7-Eleven chain. The project brought in four foreign and four local architects, who were teamed with eight poets, to create eight installations. Part of the challenge was that although the individual 7-Eleven stores which serve as markers for the installations were all participants, architects had to liaise with the community as well. Information about the location of the eight projects can be found in participating 7-Eleven stores, and although the installations are intended to remain in place until next weekend, some are likely to fall victim to the elements or irate local residents. Circle of Hope, just outside Mingde MRT station, created from massive blocks of ice by Taipei architect Lien Hao-yen (連浩延), unsurprisingly did not survive the first day.
Marco Casagrande. a Helsinki-based architect who is currently a visiting professor at Tamkang University, found that his Finnish sauna built in the forecourt of 7-Eleven just of Xinsheng South Road, Section 3, was not uniformly appreciated by local residents, who complained about the smoke from the wood fire. "The project raised issues of how we perceive public space," said Ruan Ching-yue (阮慶岳), one of the organizers of the event. An army of scarecrows, that stand half hidden amount the confusion of Wenzhou Street (溫州街), required agreement from local shop owners. "People here are always willing to go for it," Casagrande said. "I think there would be much more resistance in the US or Europe to a project like this."
For Beijing-based architect Wang Yun (王昀), it is the multiplicity of networks in which we now live that gave interest to the project. "7-Elevens are everywhere, and form a network which we negotiate when moving through the community. Mobile phones are another. Internet another. There are layers of networks which we are negotiating constantly. A project like this helps architecture students and the public become more aware of the networks in which they are enmeshed."

Published Taipei Times
Sunday Sept. 30

Restaurant Review - Lvsang Canteen

Lvsang-Intestinves in Miso
Originally uploaded by ianish2005

Lvsang Canteen (呂桑食堂)
Address: 12-5 Yongkang St, Taipei (台北市永康街12-5號)
Telephone: (02) 2351-3323
Open: 11:30am to 2pm; 5pm to 9pm
Average meal: NT$200 and up
Details: Picture menu (no English), credit cards not accepted
On the net: lvsang.myweb.hinet.net

Much is made of the delights of Taiwan's snack foods -- its little eats (小吃) -- but the unfortunate truth is that there are only a relatively few places where the true potential of these dishes is realized. One of these establishments, which specializes in food from Ilan county, is Lvsang Canteen. This unpretentious restaurant, inconspicuous among the crowd of restaurants along Yongkang Street, offers many dishes which are readily available at any street-side noodle stand, but in terms of quality, it is a world apart.
Simple dishes such as Ang Chow Pork (紅糟肉), a pork cutlet marinated in red yeast rice, smoked shark (鯊魚煙), or cold cut chicken (白斬雞), show Lvsang's quality immediately. These, among many other dishes are presented at a glass-fronted counter just inside the door, where guests are encouraged to place their orders; more complex dishes are prepared behind the scenes. Some speciality dishes are listed on wooden boards hung from the wall, and regulars will order from memory, but if you request a menu, staff will direct you to the food counter.
Apart from an array of "little eats" regulars, there are also many unusual dishes, some Ilan standards, others showing the strong Japanese influence on Taiwanese cuisine, to tempt even the most experienced diners. Many dishes are remarkable for the simplicity of their presentation, such as the blanched squid (現撈透抽), oysters with fried bean paste (豆酥鮮蚵) or the routinely excellent steamed fish (the variety and preparation vary from day to day, depending on what looked best at market that morning.) In these dishes, the freshness and quality of the ingredients are allowed to speak for themselves. Other dishes show off the skill of the kitchen staff. Most notable is the humble deep fried tofu (日式炸豆腐), which at Lvsang is prepared with a coating of paper-thin shavings of bonito. It is a whole new route to culinary heaven.
Also highly recommended are the steamed ground pork with pickle served with a sauce of salted egg yoke (金莎瓜子肉) and stewed pig's intestines in miso (味曾大腸).
Most dishes are between NT$120 and NT$180, with a small number of exceptions (the steamed fish is NT$250). Portions are small and two people can easily handle four or five dishes. To fill in the gaps, order a bowl of minced fatty pork over rice (魯肉飯) or soup noodles (切仔麵). To wash it all down, and excellent kumquat tea is available for free. Many of the dishes also make an excellent accompaniment to a bottle of cold beer, if all you want is a quick snack. Set menus of rice with sashimi, eel or prawn cakes are also available from NT$160 to NT$200.
Service is brisk, but also courteous and well-informed, and unlike many similar mid-range restaurants of this sort, there is a strong air of professionalism that leaves you in no doubt that these people take the preparation and serving of outstanding food seriously.

Published
Taipei Times (Friday Sept. 28)

A voice of their own-TIEFF 2007

The availability of cheap recording technology and improved education means that Aboriginal peoples around the world can increasingly take control of how they are represented in the media; but is this a Faustian pact that will destroy what they are trying to protect

With the bulk of Taiwan's cinemas only screening the most mainstream of mainstream films, film festivals are the only recourse for those who want to get something more than the usual action adventure or romantic comedy. Notable among these ventures is the biennial Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF, 台灣國際民族誌影展). Since it was first created in 2001 by Hu Tai-li (胡台麗), a research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica and a respected documentary filmmaker in her own right, the event has become a platform for the exploration of various issues of ethnic identity and a channel for Taiwan's ethnographic filmmakers to get their work known both locally and internationally.
"Island Odyssey," a look at various aspects of islander culture, was the theme of the first event in 2001, followed by "Migration Story" in 2003 and "Family Variations" in 2005. This year, under the direction of Lin Wen-ling (林文玲), chairperson of the Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography and an associate professor at the National Chiao Tung University (國立交通大學), the festival has decided on the theme "Indigenous Voices," turning the conventional perspective of ethnographic filmmaking upside down and showcasing the great strides that Aboriginal peoples around the world have taken in presenting their own point of view. This could be seen as a response to a theme that was outlined in the very first TIEFF with the screening of the films of Margret Mead, who helped popularize the use of the movie camera to document the lives of indigenous peoples, but who subsequently came in for criticism for imposing her own agenda (most notably in relation to sexual morality) on the subjects she presented.
The recording of Aboriginal life by members of its own community is still a relatively new phenomenon, but has already produced a significant body of work. From Taiwan, the work of Mayaw Biho (馬躍 ‧ 比吼), a filmmaker and social activist, will be showcased with screenings of his well-known work Dear Rice Wine, You Are Defeated (親愛的米酒 妳被我打敗了, 1998), which documents the use (or as some see it, the abuse) of rice wine in rites of passage for young men in the Makutaay tribe. Two other films, Carry the Paramount of Jade Mountain on My Back (揹起玉山最高峰, 2002) and Children in Heaven (天堂小孩, 1997) will also be screened during the festival. (See Taipei Times; on Sunday for a profile of the director.)
The other director to be featured is the Native American filmmaker Victor Masayesva, whose 1993 film Imaging Indians (1993) has been an inspiration in efforts by indigenous peoples around the world to repossess their culture. It is a response to the impositions placed on the native American identity by the filming of the Hollywood feature film The Dark Wind, which took the relationship between whites and Indians as its backdrop. His most recent work Water Land Life -- H2opi Run to Mexico (2007) will also be shown.
While independent filmmakers such as Mayaw Biho and Masayesva will make up the bulk of directors featured in Indigenous Voices, a new corporatism among Aboriginal peoples will be on display with works produced by Taiwan Indigenous Television (台灣原住民族電視台), the Central Australian Media Association and Video in the Villages, a documentary project run by South American Indians.
From its inception, TIEFF has had a somewhat academic feel. "The main difference between the films we choose and documentary films screened by National Geographic Channel or Discovery is in the manner of the representation. It is usually based on much longer term interaction with the subjects ... and provides a deeper insight. It is much more than simply a report," Lin said in an interview with the Taipei Times.
Another aspect of ethnographic films is its often close relationship with activism, which can be seen in the work of both the featured directors. Mayaw Biho is best known in Taiwan for his involvement is efforts to promote the use of tribal names, rather than adopted Han Chinese names, among Taiwan's Aborigines, as a way of affirming cultural identity.
The festival program encompasses a wide range of films. At one end of the spectrum there are strict academic exercises, such as Hu Tai-li and Lee Daw-ming's (李道明) Songs of Pasta'ay (矮人際之歌, 1989), a study of the Pasta'ay ceremony of Taiwan's Saisiat people, which will screen in a double feature with Pas-taai: The Saisiat Ceremony in 1936 (巴斯達隘: 1936年的賽夏祭典) by Japanese anthropologist Nobuto Miyamoto, who was a professor at what was then the Taipei Imperial University (now National Taiwan University). At the other, there are films like Mark Sandiford's Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny (2006), a humorous film inspired by the satirical essays of Inuit writer Zebedee Nungak, which turns the tables on generations of anthropologists, teachers, adventurers and administrators who went North to pursue their Arctic Dreams, and Futuru Tsai's (蔡政良) Amis Hip Hop (阿美嘻哈), which documents how a group of young Amis men have blended influences from contemporary social and cultural life in Taiwan with their traditional practice of ritual dance performance in their village.
With the improvement in cheap recording technology and access to education, Aboriginal peoples have increasingly been able to take control of how they are represented. This has generated new perspectives, and many new questions about the distortion created by recording media. Lin said that the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and modern media might be perceived by some as a Faustian pact in which the very efforts by which indigenous peoples seek to save their culture becomes a tool that will ultimately destroy it; but this need not necessarily be the case. With a lineup of 43 films over five days, with each screening followed by a Q&A, often with the director, there will be plenty of opportunity for audiences to ponder the many thorny issues raised by the festival.


Festival Notes:
2007 Taipei International Ethnographic Film Festival: Indigenous Voices
Screenings at the Majestic Theater (真善美戲院), located at (台北市漢中街116號7樓)
From tonight to Tuesday
Individual screenings NT$160 at the door; festival pass for all screenings NT$2,000
Screening times can be found at: www.tieff.sinica.edu.tw/ch/2007/e-index.html
All screenings with English and Chinese subtitles

All films will have English and Chinese subtitles

The premier of Malakacaway (馬拉卡照酒), the most recent work by director Mayaw Biho, will be screened at the Guling Street Avant-Garde Theater (牯嶺街小劇場), 2, Ln 5, Guling St, Taipei (台北市牯嶺街5巷2號) tomorrow at 7:30pm as part of a documentary film segment of the Migration Music Festival (see story p13). For times and details, see http://www.treesmusic.com/festival/2007mmf/frame.htm.

Published Taipei Times
Friday Sept. 28