Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Asia-Faith......our Rock Star!!!

Here are a few videos of Asia-Faith taken last month....she loves to sing and dance - she is part Ami (an aborigine tribe in Taiwan, and they are known for their singing and dancing)..... and did I mention that she loves music???













Just a little info about Ami:

Ami
The Ami, with a population of 123,000--the largest of all of Taiwan's aborigine tribes--are mainly plains dwellers, living in the valleys and coastal plains of eastern Taiwan. The Ami are divided into five groups based on geography, custom, and language.

The Ami began to use oxen in cultivating paddies relatively early. Fishing is an important part of their economy, but hunting is now solely recreational. In Ami society, kinship is matrilineal, but men's clubs are well organized. Ami villages are relatively large, each with a population of between 200 and more than 1,000. The Ami are the only aboriginal tribe on the island of Taiwan to practice the art of pottery making.

The Ami harvest festivals have evolved from warrior training. Nowadays sports, symbolic fishing in the open seas, and singing and dancing are observed throughout the villages in a series of celebrations in July and August.

Other information

Family affairs including finance of the family are decided by the female householder, in the Ami tradition. Not many people may have seen the Ami, but many people may have heard the Ami. The musical project Enigma used an Ami chant in their song "Return to Innocence" in their second album, The Cross of Changes. This song was the theme song of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The main chorus of it was sung by Difang (Chinese name Kuo Ying-nan) and his wife, Igay (Chinese name Kuo Hsiu-chu), part of a Taiwanese aboriginal cultural performance group. An unauthorized recording was made while they were on tour.

Famous people of Ami ancestry include baseball player Chin-hui Tsao, and singers Chang Chen-yue and Tank.

The most important traditional ceremony is the Harvest Festival. The Ami's Harvest festival is to show the people's thanks and appreciations to the gods and to pray for harvest in the next coming year. It takes place every July to September

1 comment:

Precious Wonders and Little Monkeys said...

You two have wonderful voices. You made me tear though... I remember my mother singing to me as a little one... something very sweet about that memory. Thank you for the little tidbit on the Ami tribe. Cutest little Rock Star I've seen in a while. =0) Sara