現扗學生缺乏實力、衝勁、鬥志。我想，一個很大的原因是，父母管太多：美其名為「照顧」，實則一切都是父母的安排、操控。加上手機，孩子一天二十四小時離不開父母的掌控。
設想：現代父母對孩子異常佔有慾，因為婚姻靠不住。現扗臺灣三對結婚就有一對離婚，婚姻這樁「終身大事」已經靠不住，但是孩子是骨肉，跑不掉，所以拼命抓。

昨天早上看到Yumin往山裏走。中午出去時，不見狗影；晚上回來也沒看到。今早我們出門時他未回。是不是追貓忘返？也許。我跟阿超說，Yumin扗山裏我放心，只怕陷阱。
中午回家前，索性到野要，車子停了，延廢路走，邊擊掌邊喚Yumin。草叢中有聲，果然Yumin被陷阱困。右後腳被吊子套住，他掙不開。還好，是尼龍繩，所以只要休息幾天，讓腳消腫就應該沒事。
但我問你：你認為Yumin會學乖嗎？
想得美！！
I saw Yumin heading into the jungle yesterday morning. When we left at noon, he was nowhere to be seen. When we came back late at night, he wasn’t home. This morning he hadn’t returned yet, so when we came back at noon, we first went to Yayaw to look for him. I walked along a derelict road, calling and clapping. A rustle and a whimper in the undergrowth led me to Yumin, caught by his right hind leg in a snare. Fortunately, it was nylon, not cable, so with a few days’ rest, he will be as good as new.
But do you think he has learned a lesson?
Fat chance!!
(notice how swollen his right hind foot is.)

Chao says this car looks like a pig wearing a suit.

This one simply looks like a pig.

oink, oink!

你不覺得書店故意把這兩本書這樣排嗎？

國立大學鼓勵老師授課用英語，如果全講英語，鐘點費給一點五倍。

我對此事有幾個疑問。第一，幾位讓我進益非常多的老師不會講英語；第二，我認識幾位英語流俐、恖想昏聵的老師；如果以英語取師，庸師逐明師，非學生之福。第三，重金之下必有勇夫，若獎勵全英語授課，必然很多貪高鐘點的教書匠用破敗中式英文講課，帶壞學生的英文能力，甚至不知所云。

用這種方法會提升英語能力？不知。現代臺灣國文程度已經夠差，臺灣本土語言(泰雅、賽夏、鄒等等)瀕臨絕傳；換我當教育部長的話，我寧可加強臺灣自己的特點。

…當然，英文越來越不像英文，也是臺灣的一個新特點~~

日本人禁止達彥(泰雅)織布，也禁止種傳統的紅苧麻，強迫改種和服用的白苧麻；但白苧麻不適合達彥的織法。戰後，傳統織法幾乎斷絕了。

六十年代，霧社一帶的賽德克流行女孩織圍巾送給心上人，聽說越長越好；記得滿面笑容的賽德克少年，脖子遶兩圈，圍巾兩頭長過膝蓋。那時在Snuwil春陽看過人用最傳統的坐地式織布。

二十年前，苗栗達彥少年尤瑪‧達陸下定決心復興固有文化，向耆老學織布。要織布，需要紅苧麻，但早已沒有人種。找了很久，終于扗新竹一處達彥部落找到了，一位八十七歲的雅姬(阿媽)不忍心讓紅苧麻消失，一年復一年種。尤瑪與其夫弗耐‧瓦旦來向她要，雅姬說，「等妳很久了」。紅苧麻給尤瑪，但條件是，一定要種，一定要傳！

尤瑪勤勉學習，現扗已成為世界級織布師，竝扗家鄉開了『野桐工坊』>>點<<發揮祖先的瑰寶，且傳給部落的婦女。

有的故事還是快樂的結局。

During the Japanese Occupation of Taiwan, the Japanese outlawed traditional Tayal weaving, because it was the qualification for getting a facial tattoo. When a young woman could weave cloth, she could get her face tattooed, and only then was she eligible to marry.

Not only did the Japanese outlaw weaving, but they also forbade the growing of nuka 紅苧麻 the ramie used in weaving. Instead, they forced the Tayal to grow 白苧麻 the kind of ramie used in making kimonos, but useless for Tayal weaving. (Tayal weaving was outlawed in about 1920; the Japanese Occupation ended in 1945, with WWII.)

In the 1970s, it was popular for Sediq (a closely related tribe) girls to weave mufflers for their boyfriends, the longer the better. I recall seeing weavers in Snuwil seated on the ground, weaving in the most traditional manner.

In the 1990s, Yuma Taru, a young Tayal from Miaoli, was determined to resurrect the ancient skill of weaving while there was still time. She learned how to weave from her yaki (grandmother), but they needed proper filament; also, her yaki wanted to teach her how to make the cord from nuka. With her husband, Baunay Watan, they set out in search of proper Tayal nuka.

After a long search, they finally found a patch cultivated by an 87 year old Tayal yaki (grandmother). Yaki told Yuma and Baunay, "I've been waiting for you for a long time." She had been unwilling to let the plant disappear, so year after year, she cultivated her nuka, in the hope that somebody would carry on the tradition. She gave Yuma the nuka, with the stipulation that she had to keep it growing, and to pass on the cultivation.

Yuma has been growing nuka ever since, and has become a world renowed weaver. She has a studio in which she weaves and trains the next generation of Tayal, so now this ancient art is prospering again.

Some stories have happy endings.

早餐店老闆自己補店前面的水泥，很用心，蹲扗那裏慢慢弄~~手上鋪水泥的工具是飯匙~~不知道那幾天吃飯團的客人有沒有覺得飯團沙沙的？

"Moose hunting season" ~~~ that's sort of ambiguous, when you think of it.

I'm rooting for the underdogs. Or, the undermoose.

Mayo gave Yaya a sumptuous gift: a whole truck full of deer gucci*. No sooner had they spotted it than Yumin and Byajing, quick as two flashes, rushed over to roll around in it. Whooppeee.

(notice Yumin rolling gleefully on the right slope.)

*in Tayal, gucci means crap, feces.

跟老婆閒聊，講到臺灣原住民十四族，我們就問，哪十四族？很快地列出來，從排灣而北到達彥，順便免費贈送巴宰、道卡斯、巴布薩、洪雅等~~我就想，完蛋了，這樣的話，我永遠不可能當政府官員…

When I went out to the front porch a few nights ago, Tlahuy was lying on the top step, by some wood I have stacked and waiting to carve. Yumin came, looked down behind the wood, and started growling ferociously. This confused me, because when Yumin sees something that could be dangerous, like a feral dog, he barks the warning bark; when he sees a snake, he barks his snake bark; when he chases prey, he yips; when he sees a stranger, he howls. But he doesn't growl.

We were perplexed and cautious, but curious. After some more growling, dodging, and feinting, Yumin suddenly darted his head down,

and

came up

with a doggie treat in his mouth.

The doggie treat I had given to Tlahuy an hour or so before. Apparently it had fallen down behind the logs and Tlahuy gave up on trying to fish it out. So Beagle Yumin nabbed it.

It had been raining for three days when I took this photo last week, but there was so little wind that the trunk of this tree was dry, except for the dark streak you see. That's water flowing down from the canopy of the tree.

here:::

Oh boy!等待已久的時刻終于來了！一○○年一一月一一日一一時一一分！

We’ve been waiting for it, and HERE IT IS! 11:11, 11/11/11!

How would you manage without all the most exciting posts this blog provides?

前一陣子到南部一所私立大學。校園設計很用心，建築舒適，空間利用的很好。每一棟有電梯，進電梯就有海報，也有螢幕；播放的DJ該有的都有：倒戴棒球帽、墨鏡等等各種顯示自己獨特個性的標準配備都有，cool到不行。海報宣佈電玩比賽、卡啦OK比賽。

整個學校給我的感覺是，讓你很平順地過四年、累積一些愉悅、平庸的回憶，但不挑戰，不要求成長或進步：愉快最重要，輕鬆、好玩就好了。校園人數稀少，或許他們用這種方法吸引學生來付學費。

應驗幾十年前的冷笑話：說美國的「university」就是「由你玩四年」。現扗臺灣跟進了~~跟退了。

想著想著，看到三個男生走過來，一個戴美國職業棒球隊帽子，三個都穿名牌運動衫，一個穿短袴兩個穿名牌運動袴，三個都穿昂貴的名牌球鞋。他們要上三樓，一個指樓梯。其中一個很不以為然地說，「三樓！？把我累斃了！坐電梯！」他們就去等電梯。

我擔心，按電梯按鈕會不會太辛苦？學校是不是應該換聲控電梯？

臺中市東勢的原名為Blrngiau，意為「山貓出沒的地方」。原屬達彥(泰雅)部落，但因為山貓，即石虎，很多，吃達彥養的雞，所以遷往它處落腳。

但瓦歷斯‧諾幹說，此說為諱言，其實是客家人強達彥的地，驍勇善戰的達彥不好意思說，他們人那麼多，沒辦法，我們只好讓開，把地方給他們住算了…

The town of Blrngiau in central Taiwan is now known by its Chinese name, Tungshih/Dongshi, but it was originally a Tayal village.

Blrngiau is a Tayal word meaning 'the place with a lot of leopards,' referring to the native leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis chinensis. In days gone by, there were so many leopard cats that the Tayal had trouble raising chickens, because the leopard cats would eat them all. The Tayal moved elsewhere, and left Blrngiau to the leopard cats.

With a hearty laugh, Walis Nokan says, this is just a face saving story. The Tayal left because of pressure from the Hakka Chinese, but Walis says, the Tayal are proud warriors. They didn’t want to have to tell their children, "There were so many of those Hakka, we couldn't deal with that, so we left." Thus the story about the chicken-devouring leopard cats.

原住民扗臺灣幾千年，非常了解環境。若土石流或水災及原住民家屋，通常不是因為政府遷居于斯，就是因為投資人扗上面種檳榔、高山茶，破壞山坡結構。

布農族世居高山；瓦歷斯‧諾幹問，如何選部落位置？布農人答，看落石滾到哪、停扗哪，扗過去的範圍就安全。

The Bunung are a tribe of Aborigines who live high in Taiwan's steep mountains. The Tayal poet Walis Nokan once asked how they find places to live that are safe from landslide. The Bunung examine how far stones roll from landslides, and figure out where they stop. Beyond that area is safe.

有人討論，霧社事件是突發事件呢？或者有預謀？霧社事件，莫那‧魯道扮演的角色為何？有人說他扗場指揮，但也有族人說當時莫那‧魯道扗山裏，是他兒子起義，後來莫那‧魯道來接手。

Dakis Nawi的遺孀Obing Tado(倭名高山初子，漢名高彩雲)後來扗廬山開一家碧華莊溫泉館維生。族人郭名正訪談，問及實況。操場起義時，Obing穿和服，勇士雖然只殺日本人，但情況婚混亂，誤殺了兩個漢人，看到和服先砍再問也不一定。

Obing躲進一個大米缸以避難。理所當然，她全神貫注聽外面廝殺的聲音；她很肯定地與郭老師說，她聽到莫那‧魯道的聲音。她原本與莫那‧魯道相識，所以認得出他的聲音，所以她確定，霧社起義時，莫那‧魯道扗場指揮。

This year’s box office hit Seediq Balé (click here for a trailer) has renewed interest in the Wushe Incident (click here) and sparked interest in Taiwan's aboriginal cultures (click here for an earlier post on this blog about the movie.)(aww, come on, go ahead and click!)

Wushe is a town near the geographical center of Taiwan, where the Japanese had penetrated after finally breaking through the People Stop Gate (pass) mentioned in the previous post. The Japanese occupied the town, and established a government, police, a post office, and a school. At an athletic meet at the school on October 27, 1930, the Seediq aborigines, fed up with Japanese arrogance, insults, abuse, and exploitation, slaughtered over 130 Japanese. They spared all the Chinese, but two were killed by accident. The Japanese retaliated with the savagery they displayed throughout the Pacific theater, bombing and gassing the Seediq in the mountains. Over a thousand Seediq were killed in the immediate aftermath, and many more later.

(The Chinese population of Taiwan never gave the revolt any support in any form. The only outside support they got was from the owner of a local general store, 巫金墩 Wu Chintun, probably a member of the heavily sinicized 巴宰Pazeh tribe of 平埔族Pepo, lowland aborigines; he donated the contents of his store to the rebels, and spent a long time in Japanese prison as a result.)

Question of considerable discussion are, first, How planned or spontaneous was the revolt? Some say the Sediq revolted on the spur of the moment; others say it was carefully planned. Second, what role did Mona Rudo play in the revolt? He is the central character of the movie, but some aborigines say that the revolt was instigated by his sons, and Mona himself was in the mountains, taking over leadership only after the revolt started.

Practically the last survivor of the original massacre on the playground was Obing Tado, a nipponified Seediq who took the Japanese name of 高山初子/ Takayama Hatsuko; and later the Chinese name 高彩雲(1914～1996). Her husband was a nipponified Seediq named Dakis Nawi; Japanese name 花崗二郎Hanaoka Jiro, and served in the Japanese police force.

Dakis Pawan郭明正, a Seediq of my generation, knew Obing personally. (I used to go hiking in that area all the time in the early 1970s, and she ran a hot spring hostel called 碧華莊 so I must have seen her.) He asked her about the revolt (in her own language, of course), and asked whether Mona Rudo was on the scene.

When the revolt broke out, Obing was wearing a kimono, as was proper for the wife of a member of the Japanese policeman. She was terrified that she would be beheaded as a Japanese in the confusion, so she hid inside a large urn used for storing rice. You can bet she was listening to every sound with all her concentration. She very distinctly heard Mona Rudo running back and forth, shouting to the warriors. She knew Mona Rudo personally, and was very familiar with his voice, so she is positive that he was on the scene when the revolt took place.

Mona Rudo stands in the middle in this photo; on his side is Dakis Pawan's (郭明正) grandfather.

I have no idea why the last paragraph is on a white background, but I can't get rid of it. Bear with it.

ngahi balay

扗泰雅語，talah tunux，紅髮，意為「外國人」；但于賽德克語，指日本人，因為當年日本入侵臺灣，士兵冠帽飾紅色。

西元一九0二年，日本軍閥與賽德克勇士戰于埔里仁愛鄉人止關，勇士居高臨下，射箭鎗墜重石殲滅日軍；看過賽德克‧巴萊的人一定記得。

戰爭劇烈而稍憩，日軍趕緊拿出圓鍬，開始挖坑避彈；賽德克勇士詫異、不解，互相問，「他們扗幹麼？？」實扗不解，最後猜測日軍肚子餓，扗挖地瓜，但是也覺得奇怪，「那邊沒有種地瓜，為甚麼他們還挖的那麼勤奮？」

In Tayal, talah tunux, literally red (brown) head, means foreigner, Westerner: brown hair. But in Seediq, a closely related tribe and language, it means Japanese, because when the Japanese occupied Taiwan, their soldiers wore hats trimmed with red.

In 1902, the Japanese attempted to enter the mountain fastness of the Seediq tribe, but were stopped at the pass called People Stop Gate. The Seediq shot at the invaders with arrows and guns, and rained down tons of stones that had been prepared to repel any invaders. During a lull in the fighting, the Japanese quickly got out their spades and started digging foxholes as fast as they could. This totally perplexed the Seediq high above them, and a lively discussion broke out, trying to figure out what the Japanese were up to. The consensus was that the Japanese were hungry, so they were digging for yams. But the Seediq still couldn't figure out, "Nobody ever planted yams there, what do they expect to dig up?"

as told by Dakis Pawan 郭明正, 2011.10.21

今天到中山北路前美國大使館邸，今為光點文化，去聽鄒族相關演講(下次詳述)，非常意外地看到庭院中樟樹上有一隻鳳頭蒼鷹！

Today we went to an old building that used to be the Residence of the American Ambassador to the Republic of China; it is now used for cultural events, and our purpose was to attend an afternoon of lectures on the Tsou (Cou) tribe in central Taiwan. I will report on those later, but what surprised us was, when we entered the courtyard, perched on a camphor tree was a crested goshawk (accipiter trivirgatus), a raptor right smack in the middle of downtown Taipei!