Paiwan folktale

Earlier this week on Facebook I ran into a friend of mine who is a scholar in contributing to indigenous Taiwanese culture academically ...so had a little chat with her, asking her if there's any ideas could help on my research ( had called her like million times but she hardly responded)...

so below is an ancient story regarding Paiwanese respect for Hundred Pacer snake in her own town:

The vengeance of Hundred Pacer:

Once upon a time, there is a woman whose husband has an important ceremony to attend. The woman wants to have his husband outstanding in the ceremony, so she intends to make him beautiful “Kulin” (a scarf that covers men’s chest). However, she feels lack of inspiration and could not come up with any ideas.

One day, the woman is on her way home from collecting herbs, she runs into a female Hundred Pacer snake with her baby snake, and she is amazed by the beautiful totem on the baby snake’s back. Therefore, she begs to the mother snake to borrow her baby snake home, so that she could follow that beautiful design on its back to weave the Kulin for her husband. The mother snake agrees to let the baby snake out for a week, so the woman takes little snake back and quickly follows the totem to make the Kulin. However, the Kulin based on the little Hundred Pacer’s totem amazes everyone in the village, so the baby snake is borrowed again by other villagers over and over. One week later, the mother snake comes to the woman’s village and wants her baby snake back, the woman lies to her that her Kukin is not complete yet and wants to keep her baby snake for one more week. However, in fact, the baby snake is already dead due to the endless torture of travelling between villagers’ houses.

Weeks and weeks pass by and every time the mother snake comes to claim her baby snake back, the woman makes up different excuses. Hence, one day, the mother snake found out about the death of her baby snake, and she is extremely wrathful. A few days later in a very early morning, millions and millions of Hundred Pacer snakes are sent to this village attack every villager including the woman, and only a few of them survive. The dead bodies are way too many to bury and begin to decay and stink, so the survivors have no choice but to move out of the tribe.

Ever since then, Paiwan people have realized that the Hundred Pacer snakes shall not be offended, and they are very vengeful. They say that whoever kills a Hundred Pacer snake he/she will leave the scent that other Hundred Pacer snakes can trace, and they will all come together to revenge for their companion.

Conclusion: Hundred Pacer snakes are vengeful...

Reflection---Dam trip, damn good

I love cheese, so what caught my attention the most is always cheese...yeh cheesy







However, what really amazed me is the architectures are very neat and decorated in different unique styles,
something that we don't see in UK...


















































And more surprisingly, this city is just full of freedom, a city as liberal as Dam yet it is so much safer than probably the entire UK...



Finally, my way finding project, however probably seemed boring compared to this amazing city itself:

My wayfinding project was assigned to a residential area where nothing really happens, so it's rather difficult for us to conclude something other than "silence"... Hence, what we came up with is that instead of making a fancy presentation, might as well just tell the audience how this area is...
so, see for yourself in the clip above then...

Reflections on the prototype Hundred Pacer---Feedback

After the presentation of my superhero prototype, I received the following feedback:

• Very good
• Really nice idea! but, yeah, you can make the superhero less "glamorous" and more realistic
  
• Your flash works are really amazing, but I'm concerned she doesn't look Taiwanese, more western?
• Yes, if you have story, you will know much cloth you're gonna put on her, it all depends on your narrative
• Jong-to create a female superhero character is nice, but what this character looks like should think more, the face, the clothes, and maybe can create a questionnaire to ask people (Taiwanese and foreigners) what do they think of it?
• Jong-think about your target audience and who you're talking to, well done
• focused, strong research direction, why a female character? "I thought of disney's film and "buffy" during your presenation"
• Jon-like your idea, to create a female superhero is good. And you have a very great research, but you must think the story. The story is an important part to introduce your hero.
• Jong: my sympathy for the loss of your computer. The story of the sared snake, like every story in a cultural canon, represents an ideology: I would like to be able to tell what the ideology-social message is, by looking at your character, is your superhero a fashion statement or an ethical standard or a critique on culture?
• Jong- like the tattoo effect, very cool cultural symbol, yes, make less revealing clothing---be aware of the Lara Craft look---is there a particular reason why you choose a woman character? just outta curiosity.
• Outfit...think comfort and support, what about some protection? armor? if you need advice let me know. Sara--->"Thank you, I sure will"
• Your drawing is great, so you need to pay attention to your work's contexts, carefully, please over the hobby.

and final feedback is especially suspicious:

• To Jong: very nice!! how about your girl ("she isn't my girl tho I wish") looks more like local people? (western girls and Japanese girls look very different, think about your particular character?)

ok ok, from what i have received i could conclude two basic directions I need to work on:
1. Develop a deeper story that explains the character's origin myth, which has a message to my target audience chosen

2. make the character's facial features more local...


ok i understand that it is important to have a story, which is what I intend to do for the following term, and I will present a complete piece of animation that depicts her "origin myth"

but for the second point, make my character's look more local to distinguish from western girls (i assume from white?) I really don't understand especially the last note I got hinted I should make her more Japanese look?...bizarre as it is, I am not a Japanese at all, and neither is my character, why should I make her a japanese look? so, sorry, I ain't taking that advice, not i take it offensively, but simply it don't make sense... As for those who comment that on that character's look being more western, (I assume caucasian looking?) I have to say, please, I'm a Taiwanese, but of a native heritage, most of my people naturally have kinda look except for having a mocha color skin-tone, so I presented her (my superhero) in a brownish skin color as well~!!, and just look at me, I'm sure I have a very distinguishable look from your fellows' stereotypical "oriental looking" right (slanted eyes, flat-face, etc)? and the answer is, as I said, because I'm a NATIVE Taiwanese of Paiwanese ancestry...


Still, thanks a lot for all who commented on my piece of work, I really appreciate it!

Prototype development---the Hundred Pacer

continued with last thread, I therefore have had a basic understanding of what sorta design elements I could add into this superhero cultural archetype...

based on the hand tattoo analysis, I animated the following:



"Power of Sun" symbol is enlarged and sorta modified from the traditional one, and I placed it the center of the back of hand, which is easier for audience to get a focus on the tattoo but without losing the trace to its cultural meaning, and the rest of tattoo pretty much stays the same way.

Additionally, based on my research on traditional dress, custom, I designed an outfit for my prototype as shown in my sketch:























and finally, the finalized prototype animated in Flash:

Interview---continued

Continue with the interview, some critical points I found thru my conversation with vuvu Dremedraman are the meanings of tattoo, specifically hand tattoo, which is the key to metamorphoses my superhero figure to a real cultural archetype.

here is an analysis of the meanings on hand tattoo, (these hands are NOT of vuvu Dremedraman's, but a picture I found on google that is simply more clear to recognize than vuvu's vague hand tattoo...)

image source: http://yulunanabaicu.pixnet.net/blog/post/16768939/1#comment-31240083

the image was cropped from a modern Paiwanese lady who tried to simulate the elder tradition of hand tattoo, which is therefore easier to see.

P.S. the human shapes on her fingers represent "vuvu", which means "ancestors" in this case

Personal interview on Jan. 24. 2010--- An interview with a Paiwanese elder

Goal of interview: to find out the essence of Paiwan's tattoo art
Interviewee: Chief Dremedraman
Location: Tribe Jiahsian, Ping-Tung County, Taiwan
Date: Jan. 24, 2010

In order to develop a cultural archetype based on native Taiwanese background, an interview was conducted with a Paiwan elder from the tribe Jiahsin, to further make sure this archetype will not lose her trace as a native Taiwanese too much. However, unfortunately due to a burglary happened 2 weeks ago much of the information was lost along with the missing computer where I stored all the data. FUCK! and...yeh, welcome to Nottingham! the city of Robin Hood...



anyway, I tried to refresh my head and piece all my left memory together...

Before the interview I have listed a few key questions I intended to ask as the following:

• What are the meanings of the tattoo? Why?
  
• Where do these tattoo appear? at what age?
• Any gender difference for tattoo?
• Is there a prerequisite before getting a tattoo?
• Do the tattoo follow a certain form or they can be modified?

So here it goes, I set my trip to the tribe Jiahsin, along with a Paiwan language translater,
Luzeng Dulaulauzang, who was my co-worker

here was basically how the interview went that day ( Jan. 24. 2010)
It was a sunny morning, the interviewed vuvu named Dremedreman (meaning elder in Paiwan language)
was the cheif of that tribe.

Vuvu Dremedreman is said to be 93 who yet looks like 60, with very fair skin tone...
for some reason vuvu started out from her ancestry, she claimed that she is of mixed heritage
that results to her white skin-tone (Paiwan people are usually known for their mocha color).
She knew i'm of Bailang (indigenous term for non-native) and indigenous heritage mix as well, so then she carries on how her relatives also inter marry with other racial groups and so on...and
how in Japanese colonial era that some Japanese and Bailang kids were adopted to Paiwan, which explains why some Paiwan people are very fair today...bla bla bla, took forever to
get to my topic on tattoo art...

so interview finally cuts to the point:
what the meanings of tattoo?

Tattoo is "Butsik" in Paiwan language

Vuvu explains that butsik is a symbol for noble class people, as Paiwan had a caste system (the system no longer exists after Japanese era) not quite exactly similar to Indian's, Paiwan people are divided to 4 classes as "Cheif", "Noble Class", Warrior", "Peasants"...only the Chief and noble classes had the right tattoo themselves. Therefore, the tattoo symbolizes a person's status, and it also tells the lineage of the person's family as well...however, interestingly, the person's status can change through marrying a higher class, and his/her heir will inherit the same class....
she laughs when she brings this up: "Everyone Paiwan is a noble class nowadays, we have Muni everywhere..." (Muni is a common name for noble class woman)

So where do butsik appear normally:
as vuvu shows her hands with tattoo all over, she says that women have their butsik on the back of hands, while men have their on the chest, and sometimes on the butt, interestingly, cus no one will see it unless the man is naked...

When?
vuvu doesn't quite answer my question, but she replies that she got her butsik when she was around 16, which is the age that girls got married at that time ( 80 years ago?)...
but she does mention that only a innocent, clean woman gets a butsik (only for the higher class)

So my final question: is the tattoo modifiable?
Still, vuvu does not quite answer my question, or my translater doesn't do her job well
translating...
Vuvu Dremedraman says that each family of the chief and noble classes have different tattoo, the tattoo is given by the witches and elders in the village. When being tattooed, it brings great pain to the hands only second to giving birth to a baby. The process of making tattoo is using tree branches with charcoal power, along with a hammer to stick the power onto hand( i don't quite understand this part honestly)...

At the end of conversation, a very mussy feeling...
vuvu Dremedraman says: soon one day, she is going to leave with the butsik...

There's currently only 11 elders who still have the butsik, and they're all dying soon...
signifies the vanishment of a tradition...

vuvu's butsik:

the signature of a chief,
one of few pictures saved in a pendrive without being stolen...

Holidays' over...some inspiration from video game playing---Street Fighter IV

I haven't done much worth to contribute to my project during the past few weeks of winter break, and Street Fighter IV somehow caught my eye during my lackluster holidays...
However, what drew me into playing it real hard for the entire winter break isn't its fancy fighting scenes, but its calligraphic visual effects through the fights.

See the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUIFSeLbiI

Unlike most other modern fighting games with strong 3D simulating reality scenes, ST IV adopts non-photorealistic rendering, a visual effect similar to what we photoshopers ofter refer to as cel-shading, or toon-shading, which is to simulate live-art, graphic style by computer. See the comparison between Photorealistic style and cel-shading below:


Photorealitic: image cropped from Tekken fighting scene. Rendered as delicate 3D polygons models.











Cel-shading: Street Fighter 4's simulation to hand-drawn effect.