The Forgotten Hunting Dance
In a Truku community in Hualien, students of a local elementary school were rehearsing for the upcoming sports day. The most challenging show––the 'Hunting Dance'––fell on the shoulders of grade one...
Where Has the Land Gone?
Mabanan is an Atayal settlement in Miaoli County, where the filmmaker was born. During the Japanese colonial rule, most of the indigenous community’s land was expropriated and registered as state-...
Tales of the Rainbow
In the Atayal mythology, the souls of the deceased arrive in Heaven by way of the rainbow, yet only the ones who have the traditional face tattoo would be welcomed by the Ancestral Spirits. Seeing...
And Deliver Us from Evil
According to the Tao people’s traditional beliefs, illness was a sign of supernatural possession by evil spirits. Many patients thus became isolated, unable to receive any medical care. A native of...
The Homecoming Pilgrimage of Dajia Mazu (Digital Restoration)
The first episode of Fragrant Formosa takes viewers through one of the most famous annual religious events in Taiwan. Believers used to spend eight days accompanying the sea goddess Mazu from Dajia (...
The Twilight of Tamsui (Digital Restoration)
A train rolled into Tamsui, a charming harbour town full of historical and cultural complexity. European-style architecture tells its colonial past, while Fujianese immigrants' influence stays...
The Dragon Boat Festival
The riverbanks are dotted with food stalls and buzzing with the parasol-holding crowd. Everyone is here to watch the exciting dragon boat race. Voice-over narration in melodic Taiwanese describes pre...
A Day at the Central Market (Digital Restoration)
When Taipei is still quiet and asleep, trucks after trucks emerge in the dark with fresh fruits and vegetables, seafood and meat. Intermediate wholesalers' auction chants rise and fall; the Central...
Gold for the Gods
Zhonggang, a former commercial harbour in Miaoli County once suffering from sedimentation and decline, thrived again with its joss paper (ghost money) industry. Almost every family was part of it:...