when I first moved to America with seven
years my first few years here were spent
in midwest college town bloomington
indiana it’s actually not as Midwestern
as itself because Bloomington was home
to a prestigious university so it
attracted scholars from all around the
world and my time there I made friends
with people from places like wait New
Zealand Siberia even Argentina I
remember my first few years in
Bloomington people were telling me what
a melting pot Americans how it was a
country built by immigrants from all
over the world and it was true but it’s
not like going up you really care about
where you or your parents came from when
you really cared about it’s not the
better yugioh deck would you about your
frigid pool party thing like that more
importantly though you cared about
fitting it so it wasn’t really cool to
talk about what kind of pig that the
haka knees would roast for chinese new
year or once i know what type of
holidays are around Mesoamerica so when
it makes you wonder that maybe by
adapting to new cultural landscapes we
sometimes lose story along the way so as
I approached my twenties I started
questioning more that idea of identity
you know especially in light of recent
events in modern America what exactly
does it mean to be Asian to be any color
for at this
because hashtag mrs. or that’s 2016 and
well if that is so broad of a question
that what exactly does it mean to be
taiwanese i realized that despite having
a very multi-ethnic circle of friends I
knew very little about their people and
at the same time I realized how very
little thank you about my own but still
the potential because of this diversity
for cultural exchange in America is
limitless you could be rapping you know
banana leaf namaz with a watermelon
indigenous deal one week and in the next
we could be like roasting the hoff of
these papers so but I think more
important than racial or ethnic
representation in the video or in our
country what we really need for its
society to thrive is cultural exchange
right so using myself as an example
let’s first identify how other Americans
would define an individual like me here
in America like five point six percent
of the country’s population I am Asian
grouped into an example graphic of maybe
three-point-eight billion my ethnic
makeup is what you would call Chinese
but did you know in China there are over
50 ethnic minorities there are two job
meow reader Tibetans Mongolians and
trillions so on and among 358 thousand
year
I am also Taiwanese but did you know
that in Taiwan there are hotties there
are mean that there are 16 unique
indigenous ethnic tribes that have more
in common with the rest of Oceania
across the Pacific to link you with each
other there are on hiya ghumu amazed
blue blue blue kite sake Isaiah human
Iowa so in some way Taiwan has been a
melting pot for thousands of years so
how could you group thousands of human
experiences into one name the point that
I’m trying to get at is that there is a
value to exposing ourselves to cultural
diversity and in my travels last year in
2016 in Taiwan I learned about through
the indigenous cultures there our
connection with the land our connection
with each other and ultimately i learned
how people are starting to take that
their histories explore their roots and
recreate a new type of modern identity
so carrying the culture in its most
traditional and purest form are people
like the town folk ballinger’s this
picture was taken last year and tied on
taiwan where they perform traditional
taiwan dollars vozle today tom has
performed an over a dozen places
worldwide from Luxembourg and Berlin to
London here in Los Angeles so in the
strictest sense of traditional
culture they pass on old stories and
transmit them through salt but not all
traditions are as lucky there is an old
elementary school in the village of long
Tong in taiga it’s school yard is
unkempt and its classrooms are dusty and
empty for many years long tom was
actually famous for is a nice style
leaving using materials like hemp cotton
rayon leaves straw and other organic
materials that meteor could weave
anything imaginable answers to questions
like what plant produces this material
and what type of users to ihop for this
type of braid can all be down here but
some years ago the children of bodom
began leaving the village in pursuit of
what people believed to be a higher
education they left the education of the
tribe so in this way a unilateral school
system standardized as a nation of many
traditions thus depriving locals of an
education that they would otherwise not
be able to gain anywhere else in the
world so out of desperation perhaps and
at a heartbreaking generational divide
with their youth Oh town’s elders
decided to host a week in contests
pozvonish at the abandoned elementary so
they invited their youth back of the
city and if those three days hi notice
as the boys have really attentively as
his grandmother was leaving the basket
with her train heads she narrating in
between unease and Madrid shakes linked
to them you know in the old days were
useless leave
everything see how strong it is you
can’t buy this app market so in their
exchange I realized that there was a
different model an older model of
learning what that stress is a
connection with the land with your
environmental resources and when I
server connection with your family and
community this type of learning that’s
actually practiced in local cultures all
around the world that also includes the
towel people the fourth island which is
off the east coast of Taiwan this right
here is a towel try on you many
anthropologists agree that it’s over
world heritage aviso oceanic history the
Tau adolescent how a young age fill it
with their bare hands before being
recognized by the villages at the man so
having been maritime encouraged for
hundreds of years that’s how successful
was entirely on the ocean so as a result
of this lifestyle their language is
loaded with words and analogies that
described pelagic fish birds plant
species in ways that many other
languages and on so like a long time the
base your knowledge in language now also
faces the threat of unilateral education
well there is an even more imminent
threat facing the towel cancelled out
and 1982 state utility company type
power stroke and filled with the
unsuspecting tell people they said that
they were going to
canning factory and in just a few years
hi under their noses they had an ascent
constructed a nuclear waste facility on
the south side of the island but the
thing is orchid island is a migratory
stop it’s like a train station for
hundreds of fish and pelagic species in
the Pacific dish things that we consume
as humans all around the world so to
dump your nuclear waste there is stupid
so already in the past 30 years we have
already seen birth defects as other
severe ramifications so addressing this
issue is orchid island native pay you
who painted this in 1995 title where to
we’re from to artwork features Lumumba
thighs how can you in the backdrop with
neon colored spillage running through
the ocean a sickly looking elderlies the
hem of a deformed child holding them
vulnerable top of you so the word
addresses such initiative that systemic
oppression environmental degradation and
the breakdown of generational connection
to break down a cultural identity so
these are all elements not faced alone
by the top people for happy people all
around the world more and more
increasingly now an example of course as
we all know is a recent Standing Rock
Sioux tribe recently they’ve also big
scaring these similar situation
here in the whole thing so they are also
garnered unprecedented support on a
worldwide scale from artists activists
and tribes all around the world and some
of the world’s most powerful form of
support comes in the form of
contemporary indigenous art this type of
bart has the ability to draw upon
traditional tribal motifs old stories
values and combine them with
contemporary expression whether through
painting poetry music or dance so an
example of an identity which is being
recreated right now is to newer Dance
Theatre who in life that I will vote
Bellator they are also Taiwan but
instead of Cosmo tradition in this
motion trick this original form they
draw upon that original culture and
combine it with contemporary expression
they combine it with dance jazz original
make it something that’s very uniquely
modern and also at the same time that
seat in rich cultural roots so in
November they came together with New
Zealand Auckland black race Pacific
temporary dance group together hate
perform at the Lima arts by an old and
gong show both groups have performed
internationally and despite vast
cultural differences one commonality was
clear that they were recreating the type
of identity in the modern in diverse
society that we live in that could only
be found in the balance between
Tim culture and individual expression so
across the Pacific and all around the
world today ethnic minorities and
indigenous are starting to take back
their history they’re starting to
redefine what it means to live in a
diverse and for holistic society so one
example is tika which is high paced
first indigenous contemporary art
gallery in November a cook columns
indigenous artists and put them on the
world stage with 47 other participating
countries at the annual art ik so we can
see here that culture is in stagnant and
although some traditions are lost people
adapt and stories are retold and the
stories which are being retold by
indigenous voices in Taiwan and all
around the world today share lessons
about our modern and diverse world now
we might not be able to see with the
conventional set of eyes so when I hope
that we can all learn from from title or
to New York or anywhere else around the
world of those people that are trying to
straddle the balance between original
culture and a modern identity is that
through tribal connection through
learning about our land learning about
each other we stand to gain a more
elevated perspective on how to treat
ourselves and how to treat each other and there’s not