“Herbal City: Beitou·Pingpu Tribe” Lecture Series | Session 4: The Beitou Society’s Faith History: The New Beitou Presbyterian Church
The Pingpu ethnic group has been subjected to colonial rule and assimilation education by successive regimes, and many people have forgotten their origins; however, the inheritance of historical memories of the Beitou Society leader’s family has not been interrupted. Because of Ma Kai’s missionary work, they are even better than ordinary people. Earlier exposure to the modern knowledge of Western civilization…. What cultural factors enable them to maintain their ethnic identity and vitality, and even become the leader in the Ketagalan name-rectification movement in recent years? If you are curious about their history, they can often tell a series of wonderful stories. , making you feel like you have walked through a time tunnel. They are members of the Beitou She tribe. They worship regularly at the Independent Presbyterian Church on Zhonghe Street every Sunday morning. This week, they invited teacher Chen Jinwan, who has worked hard for the preservation of Ketagalan culture for many years, church elder Pan Huian, and tribe members. Teacher Pan Liang Fenying, through the Beitou Society and their church history, understands the parts of Taiwan’s history that should be evoked.
Lecture text summary
Interlocutor｜Pan Huian (Elder of New Beitou Independent Presbyterian Church) (excerpt)
Today I want to talk about the history of this church. Our family has a deep connection with the church in Beitou. My grandfather donated 80 yuan of his liquidated income to build the church that is now the Beitou Church. The current independent church was founded by my father Pan Shuitu. He is the second generation pastor disciple of Pastor Ma Kai. The first generation is my grandfather Pan Shuisheng. My grandfather started to believe in Christianity in our family. My grandfather originally believed in Taoism. He was inspired by Pastor Ma Kai’s preaching and converted to Christianity and participated in the construction of the Beitou Church. The church we see now was built in the 48th year of the Republic of China. It was completed in October of the 50th year of the Republic of China. The fund for the church construction was raised by my father, and the building was slowly built brick by brick by my second brother. Yes, this church is at least fifty or sixty years old. Don’t underestimate the chair you are sitting on now. This chair is made of cypress and is an antique!
I used to ask my father where do we come from? My father would always say that we are from Beitou, just from Beitou. At that time, I didn’t know what it meant. I only knew that my ancestral home was not Fuzhou or Quanzhou. After my father passed away, I realized my identity as an aborigine, discovered that I was “familiar”, and also discovered my relationship with Sanzhiqi and Beitou. Our family’s original land was on the Sanzhiqi side. When I was a child, there were probably more than a hundred households on the mountain. Everyone farmed, picked bamboo shoots, and lived on it. Sanzaki was originally the sixth land, and it was also registered as the sixth land in my household registration information. However, it was requisitioned by the government as a cemetery during the Japanese period, and now it is used as a park. Our land was taken away from us, and no one from the Japanese, the National Government to the current government wants to give it back to us. Neither the words of the Pingpu people nor the history of the Pingpu people were taken seriously.
Interviewer｜Pan Liangfangying (retired elementary school teacher) (excerpt)
Let me add a little more about the story of the Pingpu people. Beitou Sanlayerqi is the hometown of the leader, which is the current reservation site for Park No. 22. The characteristic of the Pingpu tribe is that there are large-leaved olive trees and chrysanthemum flowers at the door. Seeing these plants is a symbol of the tribe. These are stories from within the island of Taiwan, and I want to share some stories from outside the island. Our ancestors came from the sea. The shipping routes during the Great Navigation Period were not only the routes for exploration and discovery of the New World, but also the sea routes for many peoples to wander. They followed the sea currents to land at Sandiao Ridge and came to Taiwan. Many rulers and colonists also landed from Sandiao Ridge. Today is about telling our story, so I sing a song written by my husband Pan Huiyao in the Aboriginal language. The meaning of this song is that there are a group of very cute birds flying freely in the mountains, but it also reminds the children When birds encounter danger, they should quickly hide and protect themselves. This song also gives us Pingpu people a warning. When we remember our ancestors, we must also remember to be vigilant.
Interlocutor｜Chen Jinwan (Member of Taipei City Aboriginal Affairs Committee) (Excerpt)
People who don’t know much about the situation in Beitou will say that my surname is Chen, and I am not from the Pingpu ethnic group, but I do have the blood of the Pingpu aborigines. My Han Chinese ancestors intermarried with the local Pingpu people, and it was agreed that the first child would be a son to the Han people, and the second child would be a son to the Pingpu people, and my ancestors were the second sons: descendants of Chen Fan . When I was a child, I was actually very alarmed when I found out that I was from the Pingpu tribe, because I knew nothing about the historical development of the Pingpu tribe, and I didn’t have a very good impression of the aborigines. What impressed me deeply was that when I was a child, I was watching the news at home. The story of Wu Feng was told in it. There were many skulls and images of aborigines taken by Japanese anthropologists. The program not only introduced the greatness of Wu Feng, but also highlighted the original The barbarism of residential society. So I have always had this impression of the aborigines in my mind. Even when I heard the story of Jesus as a child, I thought Wu Feng was greater than Jesus. But when I grew up, I realized that this was a lie, made up to deceive the aboriginal people, because the Japanese government hoped that the customs of the aboriginal people could be improved.
Today I will talk about the relationship between the Ketagalan Movement and the Beitou Society. In 2000, I joined the Taiwan Pingpu Aboriginal Association. In fact, the discussion of Ketagalan began in the 1990s. When the Gongliao area was preparing to build the fourth nuclear plant, the ruins of Ketagalan were discovered, and proof of the existence of the San Diao Society and the Ketagalan tribe was found. But it is a pity that the No. 4 Nuclear Plant cannot be preserved and can only be rescued urgently. However, these things are very fragmentary and cannot be seen in full. The discovery of these ruins led to the revival movement of Ketagalan, coupled with the “return my land movement” of the indigenous people at that time, which further contributed to the possibility of correcting the name of the Ketagalan people, and this movement to correct the name continues to this day. The connection of the Pingpu ethnic group is a connection of all communities in Taiwan. The localization movement has prompted the tribes to start preserving cultural assets. The development of the Beitou aborigines is also closely related to the local Presbyterian Church. Beitou Society is actually composed of Dingshe, Zhongshe and Xiashe. These three societies have always existed, and the Fanzicuo area of Xiashe is the birthplace of the Christian faith in Beitou.
I want to talk a little bit about Park 22. Although the current theme design of Park 22 collects a lot of historical pictures, these historical pictures are collaged and combined without any transformation, which will cause many problems. For example, the depiction of the northern aborigines in the Manila manuscript is actually problematic. The people who painted these paintings may have never seen the aborigines or been to Taiwan, and their imagination of the aborigines may be biased. We cannot accept this kind of spectacle-based imagination and cultural colonization in a public space. If we look at it more carefully, we will find that many of the pictures behind it also have problems. So we had to put the design of the park theme on hold and ask them to think about whether there were other better solutions.
The campaign to correct the name of Park No. 22 has been successful, and it is now called Beitou Sanxieqi Park. We want to use the park to draw everyone’s attention back to the traditional scope of Beitou Society, but Beitou Society in different periods has different regional scopes. What is a pity at present is that when the government looks at the problem of our Beitou community, it is minimized and community-based. But if we look at the history of the Pingpu people in a large field, this entire area has It should be viewed more cautiously rather than underestimated.
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Host/Planner | Introduction by Xu Wenrui (excerpt)
Today we have a very special opportunity to connect the history of the church, the memory of the family, and the local cultural context. Samlayqi Park was originally named “Beitou Mountain Sanderqi Cultural Park”. This name directly beheaded Beitou Society and ignored the value of Samletqi. The namer did not understand the culture of Beitou Society and Samletqi. The meaning and historical context are not understood, nor is it understood as the traditional domain of Aboriginal people. Of course, this situation has always happened in Taiwan, so I hope to use this opportunity to reorganize these issues based on local historical experience. Transformational justice is not something that central government officials decide to do, but we Things to do yourself.
Question: Do the Pingpu people have any belief in ancestral spirits?
Answer: When I was a child, I heard my father say that when he was a child, he and his grandfather would walk, bring cattle and sacrifices to the hill opposite Qixing Mountain to worship. It was their holy mountain. The spot on the mountain is still there now. Looking south from Qixing Mountain, you can see the hill opposite, over there.
Question: Have the Pingpu people always had a matriarchal society? Have beliefs changed due to foreign regimes? Will you still believe in ancestral spirits? Could it be that the beliefs of the Pingpu people during the Qing Dynasty were actually diverse?
Answer: It was originally a belief in ancestral spirits. When the Spanish ruled northern Taiwan, some people converted to Catholicism. During the Dutch period, they converted to Christianity. During the Qing Dynasty, Taoism also became popular among the Pingpu people. However, during this process, the belief in ancestral spirits changed. All still exist. If you look at it, you will see that some people in Beitou now don’t have ancestor tablets, because they just had other beliefs. The Pingpu people are indeed an ethnic group with many beliefs. In fact, when we worship ancestors, we don’t leave anything behind. We only go up there to worship, but we don’t leave anything on it. The things we can see now are all left by Taoism and the Han people.
Question: We have always said that the Pingpu people have a matriarchal society. Boys are wage earners and take home all the money they earn. Only girls have the right to inherit. But since when did the Pingpu people’s matrilineal society slowly change into a patrilineal social model?
Answer: Mainly since the Japanese colonial period, coupled with the relationship between Chinese culture and Chinese culture, the Pingpu people have gradually shifted to a patriarchal society, and women’s names have gradually been forgotten by history. Moreover, after many people changed their beliefs, their ancestral tablets were burned, making it even more difficult to find maternal genealogy.
