“Song of Orchid Island”
After I visited Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and upload my posting about the trip in this blog, I wanted to know more about the island’s culture and I found a book called “Song of Orchid Island” which I ordered from Amazon. On my flight from Tokyo to Seoul today, I was able to finished the book and it touched me greatly.
The description of the book in Amazon says “Father Barry went to Orchid island as a Jesuit seminarian in 1971. After studying the Chinese language for two years in Taiwan, and as part of his training for the priesthood, he spent a year living and working with the Yami people. This book is the story of that year. It is a collection of impressions – a song perhaps – meant less for the anthropologist than for the poet, the dreamer, or anyone else as interested as he is in sharing lives so different from their own.”
What I wanted to share here is a part in the book, which is very relevant to a question which had longed bothered me. Preserving culture vs. allowing/driving cultural changes under the name of civilization.
In the book, the writer was talking about the culture of Yami (the aboriginal of Orchid Island) with Big Lee who is also a Yami but relatively well educated. The writer says that Yami’s culture is simple and rich in traditions when especially compared to that of western. And Big Lee basically pushes back saying “So you are content to let them remain in their misery. Maybe you would like to preserve this island as a reserve for anthropologists, like the Japanese did – or as a zoo for tourist!”. And the writer was basically caught off guard.
All cultures are very unique and has special meaning of its own, but at the same time, people wants to pursue better life of some form and culture evolves reflecting such changes. I think the voting around casino in PengHu and the past vote about nuclear waste in Orchid Island has some relevance to this dilemma.
Somehow, the book gave me the answer of my own when I was getting out of the plane and walking toward immigration. Basically, it goes back to a basic fact that people needs to be respected whichever cultural direction one may choose to take, or not.
The answer is not about which way is “right or wrong”, but it is more around Is there “balanced respect” for all difference voices.
