Above：Group picture of the attendees of the Northern Taiwan Indigenous College Student Singing Competition.
“The winner goes to… the NTNU Indigenous Research Club!” Upon hearing their name being announced as the champion of the choir section of the Northern Taiwan Indigenous College Student Singing Competition, all the choir members in their traditional costume exclaimed and hugged each other with joy. This night, in the colorful metropolis of Taipei, hundreds of indigenous college students gathered at the auditorium of National Taiwan Normal University for the singing competition. The chill of Taipei’s rainy winter night was dispelled by the warmth and passion of the audience in the building. The attendees comprised almost the entire 16 indigenous peoples of Taiwan, making the event even more riotous than the traditional rituals in indigenous communities.
The Northern Taiwan Indigenous College Student Singing Competition, which is held annually in December, has been the trademark activity of the NTNU Indigenous Research Club since its establishment 24 years ago. Although seemingly nothing more than a musical competition featuring singing and dancing performances of indigenous students, the event is significant in that it provides contestants an opportunity to explore their indigenous culture and values in the process of preparation and training.
Taiwan Indigenous College Student Singing Competition:
An Opportunity for Urban Indigenous Youths to Explore Cutural Roots through In-depth Fieldwork
Yu, Jia-xian, the former club leader who also led the dance troupe in 2018, returned to the Ruhlucʉ community in the Taoyuan District, Kaohsiung City during that year’s summer vacation and spent two months consulting the community elders about their traditional folk songs, music, and dancing. After the school began, she also led a group of 30 clubmates back to the community on a two-day field trip.
“Actually, that was also my first time to experience living like a local in my hometown village,” recounts Yu. She was troubled with a mixed sense of identity in the course of growing up. Having grown up in a rural township of Kaohsiung, and despite her indigenous roots, she was unfamiliar with her culture and could not answer any questions about it. In 2014, when the Hla’alua people finally gained official recognition from the government, she returned to the community with her parents for the celebration. She found herself unable to get involved but could only watch like a bystander.
After entering the NTNU, she joined the Indigenous Research Club, where she met a group of indigenous schoolmates who also grew up in the cities. They soon hit it off due to their similar backgrounds. Each year, for the preparation of the singing competition, almost every participating team will organize fieldwork trips to varying indigenous communities to learn their traditional folk songs from community elders. “Learning from a real person is completely different from learning simply by watching online videos,” said Yu. To these indigenous youths who once had doubts about their identity, this also serves as a rare opportunity to rediscover their roots.
Originally, Yu was not sure if she could successfully introduce and teach her clubmates all the singing and dancing techniques she had acquired in the community. But when she showed the video of her first practice to her brother, who was then living in the village, he praised her for having done a good job. “It’s my very first time to be recognized by my own community member,” commented Yu emotionally.
Winter Singing Contest and Summer Sports
Meet Tie Up Indigenous Youths in Northern Taiwan
Generally, interschool competitions are held by different universities on a rotating basis. But the annual Northern Taiwan Indigenous College Student Singing Competition has been routinely organized by the NTNU Indigenous Research Club, which is a highly stressful task for the club staff every year. However, as the indigenous population in Taipei is smaller than those in Taitung and Hualien, there are few opportunities on campus for students to experience the indigenous peoples’ culture and feel their warmth. As a result, the club never considers it a hardship to hold the event, but instead stick fast to their beliefs and pride themselves on the passing on of tradition.
In the very beginning, the singing contest was a small event organized by a group of indigenous students in northern Taiwan who were fond of singing and had strong nostalgia for their hometowns. Because it was so moving to see indigenous music and dancing culture faithfully reproduced in the cities, the scale of the competition has been expanded year by year, attracting 7 to 10 universities in northern Taiwan to attend each year. Yu said that this event not only touches the attendees by creating a sense of honor, but also serves as an important link between different indigenous groups. The staff of each iteration, therefore, have a consensus that the singing competition must not be interrupted no matter how hard it is.
While winter is the season for singing and dancing, summer is the time for students from various universities to maintain close ties through sports of all sorts. The “Ball Sports Cup” is another event organized by the Club. Apart from basketball and volleyball, which are common in most inter-school games, the sports meet also features the tug-of-war and weight relay race, which are unique to the indigenous culture. The club takes advantage of every opportunity to build up links that connect indigenous people to their traditions.
With frequent exchange and interactions, the NTNU Indigenous Research Club has kept in close touch with its counterparts from other schools. For example, the Indigenous Research Club of Fu Jen Catholic University makes it a routine to hold an experience camp every summer, in which participants will spend a few nights at an indigenous community to increase their knowledge about indigenous culture and enhance their self-identity. To support the program, the staff of the NTNU Indigenous Research Club are also mobilized by sharing their rich experience in organizing events. “We work as a team regardless of which school we belong to, because we are devoting our all-out efforts to promoting the indigenous culture, ” said Yu.
The Indigenous College Student Singing Competition and Sports Meet are the two major events held annually by the NTNU Indigenous Research Club. These activities serve to bring together indigenous university students in Northern Taiwan and give them a feel of cordial warmth as if from remote indigenous communities.
A Place for Learning, Discussion, and Company:
A Platform for Urban Indigenous Youths to Know Different Peoples
Although the design of each year’s club curriculum is different in style, the routine weekly course is always centered on language learning and the exploration of indigenous culture. At the beginning of the semester, the curriculum is designed to involve fun activities like fun challenges in the night markets to break the ice between newcomers. In the middle of the semester, academic-oriented discussions like watching documentaries and lectures on current issues are arranged to spark discussions among the participants. For example, the case of Asia Cement Corp’s mining disputes, which imposes a great impact on the local indigenous people, has become a hotly discussed topic in the club.
In the era of information explosion, life in the cities is teeming with attractions of all sorts of foreign culture. For urban-raised indigenous youths who have very limited opportunities to learn about their culture and discuss it with peers, it is pretty hard to acquire knowledge of their traditional culture on a constant basis and apply it in their daily lives. Yu admits that sometimes even she herself can be attracted by the freshness of non-indigenous cultures, but whenever she gets together with her clubmates, the passion and learning desire for their own culture will be sparked again.
Growing up in the cities, urban indigenous youths are challenged by the lack of life experience in indigenous communities. At the moments when they have doubts about their identity and culture, they cannot feel the warmth and support from their hometown village in time. In the bustling and fast-paced city of Taipei, the NTNU Indigenous Research Club serves as a platform for those who are interested in exploring and preserving their indigenous cultures, and a second home where they can support each other and learn together to further enhance their self-identity through collective efforts. This is undoubtedly the most valuable cultural treasure that indigenous students can find in the cities. 
All the members of the NTNU Indigenous Research Club are close to each other. Everyone serves as an import pillar of support for one another in organizing activities, which has become the culture of the Club.
Related articles
