Taiwanese Aboriginal Dances Compared to Filipino Aboriginal Dances

I remembered writing about the links between Taiwanese natives and Filipino natives as well as Ifugao OFWs in Taiwan. I'm not a bit surprised about the studies showing the common ancestry of Taiwanese natives and Filipino natives. The brown skin ethnicity is not unique to the Filipino majority. A visit to Taiwan's fabulous Mount Alishan would show a surrounding similar to Banaue Rice Terraces or the Cordillera region.

Above is a video depicting the dance of a song called "高山青 (read in pinyin as Gāo Shān Qīng)". It literally means "High Green Mountain". I guess this is the most-known song. A trivia would be that the song was written for a 1940s Taiwanese film called Happenings in Alishan. If you noticed the dance steps, any Filipino familiar with the native dances of Filipinos might comment, "Wow, the steps are rather similar." These are dances that Taiwanese natives would entertain tourists with.

This is an Ifugao dance called Dinuya. It's not surprising that in a program, the attire worn for an Ifugao dance was used for the Taiwanese tribal dance. The dance steps can be very similar in more than one way. I even want to say that take away the words of Taiwanese tribal dance songs, you may get a very similar beat.

Some of the versions of the song "High Green Mountain" include chanting in an indigenous language as part of the lyrics. It's actually hard to decipher it. It might sound similar to the Hudhud chant of the Ifugao people. Maybe, an Ifugao native would be able to decipher what the indigenous chant in "High Green Mountain" may actually mean. Maybe, I don't need to go to Taiwan but to Nueva Ecija to understand the meaning of those words.

There's also the song "Love Song of Nanuwa". Apparently, the word "Nanuwa" is of aboriginal origin. I heard it means "welcome". I tried to look for a translation online of what Nanuwa means. I had no such luck as the word is apparently native in origin. The word "Nanuwa" also appears in some versions of the Chinese song "High Green Mountain".

Finding a Taiwanese aborigine bamboo dance is anything but surprising. The distance between Taiwan and the Philippines is so close. It's not too surprising to find similar dance steps per country.

This would be a huge challenge. Recently, I want to go to both Nueva Ecija and Mt. Alishan. Not surprisingly, Ali is also a word in the Ifugao language! Alishan when translated into English is still, Alishan. I think Alishan is pretty much another indigenous language. I'm not actually good at languages. However, I still feel interested in digging into history even as I'm no history major.

Right now, this might be building another bridge to acknowledging common Asian ancestry.

Recalling Amos Yee's Anti-LKY Rants As He Gets His UNSURPRISING Worst of the Worst Status in American Soil

PHOTO: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Who can remember Amos Yee, that brat who badmouthed the late Lee Kuan Yew? It's been 10 years and several months since LKY died on March 23, 2015. According to The Straits Times article written by Chinese Singaporean writer Daniel Lai, it should be interesting to note that he's the only Singaporean among the arrested. This is what Lai wrote about Amos, which should be disturbing at several levels. The webpage states that Yee was convicted of enticement of a minor for indecent purposes, sexual exploitation of a minor via photograph and sexual exploitation of a minor via telecommunications . It added that he was arrested in Chicago, Illinois. The 27-year-old child sex offender is in the custody of ICE after he was released on parole on Nov 20. He is last known to have been detained at the Dodge Detention Facility in Wisconsin, a four-hour drive from Illinois, where he was serving a six-year jail term for child pornography and sexual ...

Facts vs. Gossip: Why Fat Acceptance Isn't as Cool as the Gossipers Say

Back in college, I recall having the idea of exercise being "too complicated". It doesn't have to sound complicated. I have my journey from 2013-2023 where I really lost much weight. After having a Mi-Band, I thought about how losing weight was something. I ended up running into the video of this attractive blonde girl. I admit that I watched it partly because she's pretty. Then again, some videos with really ugly-looking people are entertaining when they have very good content. I watched the video and I could really laugh (and cringe) at the stupidity of the fat people in the video. Hearing them whine is really that annoying. The girl really talks about some sense in many of her videos. A lot of people are simply trying to become what they're not and try to defy the facts. It's just so stupid how fat acceptance people even shame people who are trying to lose weight. I've watched some weight loss stories and found out some of them had suffered a lot of he...

The Happy Aborigines Taiwanese Song

While looking for an Aborigine song that gave me an earworm--I found this interesting aboriginal song. By looking at this video, I suspect that this song is actually a love song between a man and a woman,. It does sound very Ifugao-like as well.

Today in History: Remembering the Vizconde Massacre "Star Witness" Jessica Alfaro

The Vizconde Massacre looks like it's going to be in those cases, still Case Unclosed. Back in the 1990s, the Vizconde Massacre was one of the cases I heard while growing up. I once believed that Hubert Jeffry P. Webb was guilty. I actually wanted to see the man get the death penalty. What shocked me was that after many years, Hubert, along with Francisco Juan "Paco" G. Larrañaga, were both innocent of the crimes they were accused of! Since the crime happened in 1991, and the trial only began in 1995. Right now, it turns out that Jessica Alfaro, the "star witness" is living somewhere in Canada . The rumors of the Chiong Sisters living in Canada can't be proven. However, it's proven that Jessica is living in Canada. From the Asian Human Rights Commission , here's a summary of the Vizconde Case. Since I'm not writing this as a book report in middle school or high school, I'll paste the summary here: VIZCONDE MASSACRE CASE: This case is about th...

Pol Pot's Brutal Regime May Be Summarized by "Hating Everyone Better Than Him"

Documentation Center of Cambodia Archives Two days ago, on April 17, 1975, marked the 50th year since Pol Pot (real name, Saloth Sar) rose to power. The Khmer Rouge only ruled for four years, but it showed one thing--a reign of less than six years isn't necessarily benevolent (read here ). A look at Pol Pot's past may show that he was the typical inggitero--the Filipino word for someone who's easily jealous of others! The History website reveals this brutal detail on Pol Pot's regime, which was most likely fueled by jealousy : Pol Pot was a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During that time, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork. One detention center, S-21, was so notorious that only seven of the roughly 20,000 people imprisoned there are known to have survived. The Khmer Rouge, in their attempt to socially engineer a classless communist society, took particular ...

A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

Search This Blog