Glory We People

Anthropologist Nigel Barley believes that, when a community loses its identity, what is most distressing is that the world loses a particular perspective.

Taiwan is home to various ethnic groups within 16 indigenous tribes, Han Chinese (Minnan people, Hakka people and Waishengren, who came to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War in 1949) and new immigrants from Southeast Asia countries in recent years.

Glory We People is an exhibition responding the ethnic identity topic on the indigenous and Hakka peoples in Taiwan, which are both under the impact of the global mainstream culture with the self-ethnic identity being uncertain, and are facing the dilemmatic issue on whether to preserve or diverge from their own traditional cultures.

Through the juxtaposition of indigenous and Hakka elements, the exhibition explores the themes such as physical labor, environmental changes, religious beliefs, as well as the different values and the cultural symbols of glory under different cultural contexts. From the six artworks, we can see the similarity of the contemporary situations of the two groups within seemingly different cultural contexts.

Artwork 1: Glory of the Indigenous People
Headgears serve as symbols of glory, status and class. This collection reflects how the social structure of indigenous groups were established and the way they function.
Artwork 2: Glory of Hakka People
The lintel plaques of Hakka traditional architectures can be seen as a tangible medium to explore the core values and traditional virtues of Hakka culture.
Artwork 3: Genesis
We replicate 45 indigenous and Hakka artists' and traditional cultural inheritors' hand models, to show the imprints of time and the fruits of their labors.
Artwork 4: Where is the Site of Memory
This piece depicts how indigenous and Hakka people left their hometowns and put down roots in unfamiliar surroundings for surviving and living.
Artwork 5: Do not Go Gentle into that #6
Reflecting on sustainable environment, the artist used charcoal and mile-a-minute weed to express the inner turmoil of when peoples were confronting mainstream culture.
Artwork 6: Whispering a Prayer May we speak different languages or have different beliefs, in low whispers of prayers or loud chanting of worship, but we all believe that our sincere communication with gods, deities or spirits allows our voices be heard above.