Tsou hunter, early 20th century

= Yugan, the Tsou鄒 tribe thinks they are great hunters, but do you know that's not the truth?

+ It's not?

= No, of course, how could it be the truth? The only great hunters are we 布農族 Bunun hunters.

+ Oh, I believe you, I believe you.

= No, it's true! But the Tsou tribe, they do not know how to hunt at all.

+ No?

= No, absolutely not! But they never brush their teeth, you see. All Tsou tribesmen are dirty.

+ What's that got to do with it?

= You see, when they aim at a squirrel, they point their gun at the squirrel, and they concentrate so hard that their mouth falls open. Then the squirrel sees those two dirty yellow buck teeth, and thinks, Oh, look, there are two kernels of corn there for me to eat! And the squirrel scampers up the barrel of the gun to eat the corn, and the Tsou catch them that way.

+ Oh really.

= Absolutely! You see, the Tsou don't know how to hunt at all. That's how they do it.

+ Oh, I believe you, I believe you.

photo: Bunun hunters, early 20th century

photo: Paiwan hunters, early 20th century
= That's a nice necklace you have on. Is it Paiwan排灣?

+ It's actually Lukai魯凱, but Paiwan, Lukai, they're just about the same.

= But not many Lukai do this kind of work.

+ Yugan, there's not much difference between the Lukai and the Paiwan tribes. The Paiwan sneer at the Lukai and say, You are really swarthy! The Lukai sneer back at the Paiwan and say, You are even swarthier!

= But the Lukai have bigger eyes.

+ Yugan, that's the truth! The Lukai have such big eyes that they can see in the dark.

= Their eyes collect light better?

+ Yes, that is so. The Lukai say they are great hunters, but do you know the story behind it? When we Amis or the Paiwan or the Tayal go into the mountains to hunt, we have to track down game, it's very difficult, but for the Lukai, it's different.

= How so?

+ The Lukai go into the mountains at night, and their eyes are so big, they're like lights shining in the darkness. The flying squirrels see the light and are so dazzled that they fall out of the trees and die. The deer see the light and are so dazzled that they run into trees and kill themselves. The boars see the light and are so dazzled that they run into boulders and break their necks. So you see, Yugan, the Lukai are not really great hunters, it's just that their eyes are so big, and shine so brightly in the darkness of night, that all they have to do is go pick up the dead animals.

= So that's the story behind their hunting.

+ It is! Of course, I'm not prejudiced.

= Of course not, because it's the truth.

+ The absolute truth! You know, Yugan, that even though I am Amis, my wife is Lukai, just like Qalux's wife Naluwan, she's from the Lukai tribe too. One time I was visiting my wife's tribe. It was night. I was sitting outdoors. I heard a strange sound coming towards me. It went kwiiii kakkakak kwiiii kakkakak and it was coming closer and closer, kwiiii kakkakak! I saw two lights shining in the darkness, coming closer and closer to me! I thought, Is this a human being, or is it something inhuman or supernatural? The lights came closer! And Yugan, do you know what it was?

= I have no idea.

+ It was my father-in-law coming home drunk! He had been out drinking with his buddies and he was so drunk that he put on the wrong flip-flops. He had a plastic flip-flop on one foot and a wooden one on the other, so he was making this strange noise as he walked, kwiiii kakkakak kwiiii kakkakak! And he's Lukai, so he has these HUGE eyes, and they were shining in the darkness and frightening me! I really didn't know if it was a human being or a ghost! But it was my father-in-law!

= I see!

+ But of course I'm not prejudiced.

= Of course not, because it's the truth.

I just saw a book title: How to Be Happy. Tremendous! Can you get a refund if you're not happy when you finish reading it?

The 景頗/Jingpo/Kachin have fought long and hard against the Burmese military junta. Now the junta plans to transform all such ethnic groups, including the Kachin Independence Army of the Kachin Independence Organization, Kokang, Shan, and Wa, into Border Guard Forces. Click here:::

I don't know the ins and outs, but this could be a face-saving deal. The Kachin, Karen, and other groups have fought the junta to a standstill, and this may be a way to grant them autonomy without admitting that they have earned their independence. If they could defeat the ethnic armies, the junta would never negotiate with them; but decades of fighting have proved that the junta can't subjugate their minorities.

I hope this turns out well. The civil war in Sri Lanka is finally over. With luck, Burma will enjoy peace too. And then prosperity.

leading the manau
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

I have found what has got to be, hands down, the world's funniest website: Vegetarians Are Evil. Here you are warned against 'Deadly Poisonous Soybeans,' and informed that 'Vegetarianism is Child Abuse.' The site lists such famous vegetarians as Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, and Hitler, but how could they forget Stalin, Satan, Mao, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Ronald McDonald, Calvin Coolidge, Jack the Ripper, Bonny and Clyde, and other famous, violent vegetarians? I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

One thing I believe this site has proved conclusively. They ask, Are vegetarians more intelligent? If you look through this site, you will answer with a resounding YES!!

The last job in the world I would want would be a miner. I cannot imagine making my living by crawling into the earth and waiting for it to fall in on my head. I express my great respect and sympathy for all miners by using mined products as sparingly as possible.

Pit mining murders miners, strip mining murders the earth. But it turns out that there is a type of mining worse than either of these: mountaintop removal coal mining.

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines mountaintop removal:
"Mountaintop removal/valley fill is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys."

The process is the stuff of dreams for heroes like Ronald Reagan or Dubya: first the mining company clears all the plants and wildlife from the mountaintop, then they blast off the top couple hundred meters of mountain with explosives, dig the coal out with automated machinery that keeps people and jobs off the worksite, dump the waste all over the nearby environment, process the coal, and smile all the way to the bank.

By 2003, coal company permit maps show that they had destroyed 700,000 acres: 284,000 hectares. How big is that? 700,000 acres (love these online conversion machines) is 1093 mi² = 2830.87km2 which doesn’t help me a whit more than it does you. For a comparison that I, at least, can understand, the台北基隆都會區 Taipei Keelung metropolitan area is 2,457.1253 square kilometers, so the mining companies confess to devastating an area larger than Taipei and Keelung together. Too big.

That does not include the nearby valleys and downstream ecosystems buried and annihilated, or unreported damage. Way too big.

Does that bother you? Start here: I love mountains
留個青山在~~~

Today I sawed down a utility pole.

Overheard going into the jungle
Amis: 你買那個甚麼？
Yugan: 掃把。
Amis: 買掃把幹甚麼？地上滾一滾，灰塵就起來了。

Amis: What’s that you've bought?
YD: A broom.
Amis: What do you need a broom for? Just roll around on the ground and you'll pick up all the dust that way.

Taiwan is a great place for vegetarians, and it just got even better.

First, why a great place? Three reasons. Taiwan has a lot of mainstream Buddhists who are 素/su vegetarians. That means no animal products whatsoever, and none of the 葷fetid vegetables: onions, garlic, leeks, scallions. For more on this, please see this post, and you may want to read this post::: The second reason is that for decades, Taiwan has been gourmet paradise, albeit unsung. Taiwan is home to over twenty million finicky eaters who demand the best cuisine, and thousands of restaurants working hard to provide that. The third reason is that Taiwan has a wide variety of luscious fruits and delicious vegetables. I remember reading somewhere that Taipei's markets usually stock an average of eighty varieties of fruit and vegetables. Average. And that doesn't begin to tell you how good everything tastes. Climate, soil, Chinese farming techniques developed over millennia, plus demanding consumers.

Why do I say it just get better? Read this:::: the Department of Health has announced strict new labeling standards for vegetarian food, violation of which may result in fines up to NT$200,000 (about US$6,100). Including 葷/fetid vegetables (see above) or dead animals in vegetarian food may result in fines of up to NT$300,000 (over US$9,000), and if the crime is repeated within a year, the producer's license will be revoked.

So if you want to eat well, come to Taiwan!

一蜂嚼樹葉，俯首見狼群獵鹿。蜂思之，若群蜂齊攻，必大獲鮮血鮮肉。于斯歸巢謁蜂王，與論之，蜂王曰：善！蜂王招群蜂，計攻鹿，群蜂曰：善！蜂擁而出，以攻鹿，不料鹿竟逃脫。

歸巢論功過，一蜂曰，蜂雖多卻小，鹿雖寡但巨，小不敵巨。吾有一計，乃請眾蟲合攻，若克，論功授肉。

群蜂曰：善！

一老蜂執杖而前，曰，善則善矣，但不宜造次。宜循次。

蜂王曰，何謂循次？

老蜂對曰，眾蜂無紀，臨敵必亂。以不教蟲戰，是謂棄之。大王若招眾蜂攻獵，應由小漸大；先獵小牲，兔鼠之輩；克，則獵羊；克，而後獵鹿，是謂循次。

蜂王曰：善！于斯四方招蟲：蝎、蚋、虼、蚊、蠅、蠲、蟊、蛭、蠹、虻、蝨、蠆、蝗、螟蛉、蟑螂、蜈蚣、蚰蜒、蜘蛛、蜾蠃、螞蟻、，無不致。蜂王諭旨，皆歡喜信收，列隊成陣出征，迅速獵獲一鼠，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

鼠肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，迅速獵獲一兔，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

兔肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，迅速獵獲一羊，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

羊肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，循次計果然靈驗，鹿雖大，寡不敵眾，雖欲逃脫，插翅難飛，卒為眾蟲所獲。眾蟲歡喜若狂，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首。但蜈蚣上殿拜受賜肉時，不料老蜂執杖而前，曰，且慢！

蜂王問，何事？

老蜂對曰，蜈蚣今不當賜肉。

蜂王曰，蜈蚣驍勇善戰，陷陣破敵，因何而不賞？

老蜂對曰，請問大王，今所獵為何獸？

蜂王曰，今獵鹿矣。

老蜂對曰，正是。自古聖賢曰，蜈蚣不受鹿。

蜈蚣
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

As I have reported here and here (and here too) on this blog, as soon as Byajing came, Tlahuy and Yumin fell in love with her. She is a sweet little dog, and adores her two big brothers. But I am thinking, maybe we ought to get another puppy girl, maybe she needs some more female influence in her life.

This morning I was working outdoors near a kyumin茄苳 tree I planted years ago. Yumin walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted his leg, and whoosh. A moment later, Tlahuy walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted his leg, and whoosh. A moment later, Byajing walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted her leg, and whoosh…. Mmm, Byajing dear… that’s not ladylike…

If you don't know both languages thoroughly, it's not a good idea to get cute with transliterations. Consider the vegetarian cafeteria chain 明德, literally Bright Virtue or, from Great Learning大學之道，在明明德，在新民，在止於至善; the path to great learning is to elucidate bright virtue, to keep the people up to date, and to stay in the greatest good.

Ok, so if they had stuck with a simple transliteration, Ming De or Mingteh, all would have been fine, but some genius got the bright idea of trying to make it sound like English: Minder…

The Urban Dictionary defines Minder as "a muscle brain who defends/protects a criminal or shady operator from other criminals/shady operators and also does his employer's dirty work in general."

Also, in Australia, minder means minda, which is an insult school children use to mean idiot, retard.

So shut up and eat your vegetables, or else, pinhead!

In memory of all the lives, talent, hope, and possibilities that were crushed twenty years ago today.

Smoke gets in your eyes
Before the beginning of the 19th century, British imperialists found they could make a killing (literally) if they grew opium in India and sold it in China. On June 3, 1839, the mandarin 林則徐/Lin Tzehsu confiscated British opium and started burning the stock. It took forty days to burn all of it, which gives you an idea of the amount of drugs the British were selling. The British, who constantly assure us of their superior ethics and higher morals, responded to the Chinese burning of their stash by sending an army and instigating the Opium War.

Now June 3 is celebrated (or ignored) as 禁煙節/ Opium Suppression Day, and is also a day to remind everybody of the dangers of smoking.

Today is 170 years since Mandarin Lin started burning the British exploiters' opium. Now is a good day to resist ruining your health by smoking American exploiters' tobacco.

A dread condition, congenital exhibitionism among letter-carriers.

My great-great-grandfather Jacob Jennings Burnett fought in the Civil War for the Lincoln and Liberty too. He was born on Christmas Day, 1829, in Indiana, but I would like to point out that it is a matter of considerable pride in this family that he resided, after the Civil War, in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. I believe I may be the only person in northern Taiwan whose ancestors hailed from Rabbit Hash, and I am positive that I am the only person in Wulai who can make such a claim (assuming there were no Tayal in Kentucky in the 19th century).

Every person with a heritage in Rabbit Hash should be proud of our ancestral land, for in 1998, residents elected a dog as mayor. In 2004, another dog, Junior, won the race, although the state Health service would not permit His Honor the Mayor to enter stores.

In the 2008 mayoral race, competition was stiff: ten dogs, one cat, one opossum, one jackass, and one human being ran for the most prestigious office in Boone County, KY. The new mayor of my ancestral home is Lucy Lou, a fine Border Collie. I'm not surprised the jackass lost; eight years with one in the White House was enough.

So tell me, what kind of drab and boring place do your ancestors come from? Some place where they elect people as mayor, I suppose. How trite. Ha ha, Rabbit Hash forever!

An Englishman named Alun Daniel wrote this Letter to the Editor:
My friend's mum recently pointed out that I have the same ironing board cover as her. Can anyone think of a more mundane and pointless remark to make than this?
Certainly I can!
First, that he bothered to write to the Editor about it.
Second, that some twit posted it on his blog.
Third, that another twit read it.
Hi there, how do you like my blog?

看了赤壁上下集，大失所望。三國演義裏忠孝節義、人物描述、人品高卑、心態遷化種種，在電影裏蕩然無存。第二集比較收歛，第一集庶幾為特效表演而已，說看電影嘛，更像看電玩。

選角色出了很多問題。關公、張飛、趙子龍最好(只是有點失望，三國最響喨的台詞：吾乃常山趙子龍也！居然沒排上用場)，看劉備想問，怎不想辦法給他弄一副大耳朵？曹操罵他大耳兒；手臂過膝不好作假，可是至少該給劉備耳朵大些、長些！

最受不了小喬：每次出現想叫她，嘴巴閤起來！媽媽是怎麼教妳的？？嘴巴懸開，眼神獃滯，看起來IQ零蛋一個！

演員太多現代臉，看不出古人的相貌。最失敗的，莫過于金城武飾諸葛亮。三國的孔明，「有奪天地造化之法，鬼神不測之術。」當然難找演員─尤其現代的演員。金城武沒有書卷味，更不用談道氣；眼神很浮、沒定力、少氣魄、走路像小生，一點也看不出呼風喚雨諸葛亮的器度。難怪不敢拍七星壇祭風；雖是三國演義非常精彩的一段，但金城武氣勢不足，無法勝任。

周瑜與孔明死對頭，借東風後，趙子龍護送諸葛亮跑回家才沒有被周瑜害死。但電影結尾，瑜亮他們倆口站很近交換甜言蜜語，宛若快要交頸。這裡是赤壁呢？或者二二八豔遇？

電影裏的服裝很美，真羨慕古人穿那麼好看的衣服；西裝拘謹束縛，不比中國豪放的古裝。我猜，演這部電影的演員，很想把衣服帶回家佔為己有。

電影許多與歷史不符，也與三國演義不合；我個人認為，原來的故事比較精彩。他們花很多心血搞特效，可是在過十年回頭看，大概看得很好笑。這部電影最好的，是服裝。

其實，在歷史上，赤壁之戰不算很重要，因為誰贏誰輸，不影響結局：曹魏稱帝，司馬懿篡魏立晉，亂亂亂。只是因為孟德、孔明、子瑾、後主、雲長、翼德，各個曠世豪雄聚在一塊，風雲際會，不怪乎千百年來膾炙人口、津津樂道。

還是很遺憾沒讓他講那句：吾乃常山趙子龍也！

Among Taiwan's aborigines, the Tayal/泰雅 are the noted as the most skillful weavers. A girl had to be able to weave cloth before she was eligible to get married, and boys learned how to make packs and bags out of ggi (苧麻, ramie).

The most difficult of these handicrafts is, by far, weaving net bags, such as the one shown in the photo above. As far as I know, in Wulai the skill has been lost for at least forty or fifty years, and in all the Tayal villages of Taiwan, there are only a few old men, probably less than half a dozen, who can make these.

One of these is 82 year old Hayun Alun, a Tayal from 宜蘭 Ilan, in the next county over, on the other side of the mountains. In order to pass on this almost extinct art, the Wulai Women’s Weaving Association invited him to come to Wulai to teach his skill.


Originally, men's and women's handicrafts were strictly separate; men did not learn women’s skills and vice versa. However, the survival of the craft is more important. What interests me is that although the hardy women in the Association are highly skilled weavers, the tools and methods taught by Hayun are totally different from any of the traditional women's weaving. The traditions evidently developed separately and without exchange.

For example, the likus, the tool shown in the photo above, is like nothing women traditionally used, and the women had no idea whatsoever about how to use it.

Hayun is a careful, meticulous teacher with great patience. He took us step by step through the process of winding ggi strings into synu strings, and building the pack. Some of the steps were so difficult that consternation reigned. Difficult for us: Hayun has been doing this for over 70 years, so he weaves with ease and grace, but at first the Wulai Weavers were stumped. They persisted and thrashed it out, and came back the second day looking like a flock of pandas, from lack of sleep, but they worked it out.

They did, Chao did, but I know my limitations. I will stick to woodcarving. It was a delightful exercise in frustration, and I assure you, Chao picked up the skill quickly, but for me, chisels are just fine, thank you very much.

Due to my affiliations with the Jingpo / Kachin in Taiwan, I get a lot of information from Jingpo around the world. I don't know the language, so I follow the English.
Erh, I try to follow the English. I just got an e-letter with a long text in Kachin, and this English explanation:
This news is Kachin Language news which is burma arm peace groups are preparing for changing style of arm peace groups in burma.
Ah, come again, please?