What's Pasiwali? Where is it? Who goes to it? Why is it? How is it?
Well, before attempting to answer the above questions, I should say that I'm no expert. I've only attended this event twice, both this year and the last. Any further back and you'll have to ask someone else. It's not (necessarily) that I wasn't in Taitung then, but I never bothered with Pasiwali until last year.
For those less familiar with it, Pasiwali is a music festival held in Taitung's Forest Park. It occurs over two days, and this year those two days were November 23 and 24.
According to both Wikipedia and the festival's website "Pasiwali" means "going to the east" in the Amis tribal language. East Taiwan (of which Taitung is a part) is where the majority of the island's aboriginal people live, so by "going east" they are, in a very general sense, returning home.
Pasiwali, it must be said, began as a much more local event. I've heard it was originally hosted on a beach somewhere, and that back then it was much smaller in scale. Over time, like the Taitung Open of Surfing, it became a much bigger event, drawing in tourists from all parts of the island.
Setting aside the question of how Pasiwali was originally conducted, these days Pasiwali takes place on the grassy field just inside the entrance to the Forest Park. This year it started at 3 pm on a Saturday and ended late on the following Sunday night. Many of those attending Pasiwali showed up early in order to stake out a place on the field in front of the stage.
As you might imagine, alcohol flows freely during this event, though not always with the approval of the aboriginal people gathered there. Some aboriginal people are very religious, and they often express a strong dislike of alcohol consumption. When you look at the toll alcoholism and related social ills have taken on many aboriginal communities, this attitude makes a certain amount of sense.
Most of the musicians performing at Pasiwali are members of local tribes, though this year there was a metal band from somewhere in South America. I don't know if there's some kind of rule in place as to the ethnic affiliation of performers. Maybe it's an informal thing, or maybe few non-aboriginal acts are invited. Whatever the case, I very much doubt that many of the food and drink vendors at the venue are members of local tribes. Many of them look more like hippies down from Dulan.
I have two recommendations regarding Pasiwali. These are: 1) get there early, both to find a good patch of grass and to locate those you want to be with, and 2) expect long lines for the toilets. The toilet situation at Pasiwali is so bad that many men and women opt for the bushes instead, even though I've seen more than a few snakes in the Forest Park. If you're not planning on staying long, go to the bathroom before you visit. If you're planning on staying for several hours, have a plan B with regard to the toilet.
And oh yeah, beer. It's much better to bring your own alcohol to Pasiwali. I didn't see any beer tent there this year, though I did see one last year. Whatever the situation with regard to the beer tent, it's much easier and cheaper to bring your own libations into the venue. Waiting in line for the food is bad enough, but waiting in line for beer is a serious grind.
Comparing the two years I've visited, I did notice a rather marked change in the makeup of those attending the festival. Last year seemed a lot more "aboriginal" to me, possibly because COVID worries were limiting tourist numbers. This year there was a sizeable contingent of LGBTQ+ types, alongside a more general type of tourist just out for a good time. It was as if the a pride parade and Kenting's Spring Scream had been imported into Pasiwali, not always, I later learned from an aboriginal friend, with the approval of those who'd been attending the festival for years.
Was this coworker describing some kind of homophobic or xenophobic undercurrent to Pasiwali? To be sure, there's a more Christian/moralistic side to many (not all) aboriginal people's thinking, but I think that in this case my friend was merely talking about how more "woke" people had, to some extent, hijacked the festival for their own ends. Many aboriginal residents came to Pasiwali to celebrate a certain kind of community, and injecting another agenda into that celebration was, in their eyes, somewhat offensive.
If it helps put this matter into a somewhat larger perspective, I was in Wutai Township, Pingtung County not long ago, and I was talking to a Rukai person about religion in their village. "We decided nobody can be Buddhist," she said to me, "Because that kind of thing separates us. We're all Christians here, nobody can be Buddhist."
When you think about it, the natural isolation of many aboriginal villages makes this type of group cohesion very important. I'm not saying it works in every case, and I'm not saying that it works for every person, but abiding by certain rules of behavior can be a lot more important when you're living in a small village on the side of a mountain. Seen in this light, the LGBTQ+ element was definitely a newer element at Pasiwali, and thus something to be treated with suspicion. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of "out" men and women from aboriginal tribes. It was just that the effort to add more of a Pride element to Pasiwali hit some people the wrong way.
Aside from the LGBTQ+ group there were also tourists down from Taipei, Kaohsiung and who knows where else. Those who behaved respectfully were, of course, welcomed with open arms, but there was definitely a subset of muscle dudes and bikini girls in attendance, and their skimpy clothing raised some disapproving eyebrows.
And no, I'm not trying to say that you're wrong for going to Pasiwali just to party. I've been that guy a few times, and we can't always measure the appropriateness of our leisure activities against whatever habits, customs or cultures are present around us. Being too "woke" in this context isn't that different from a Rukai villager deciding to advertise his/her Buddhism. After a certain point you're just putting space between yourself and other people.
All of the above said, I'd like to state that whether you sang with your aboriginal friends or not, whether you flew the rainbow flag or not, whether you partied hard or not, I hope those who attended had a good time. We all enjoy things in different ways, and as long as no one's getting hurt it's all good.
I wonder, however, if it might not be better to split this event into three separate events. I'm not saying that the three groups described above can't get along (this is far from the case), but I wonder if those attending this year's event might not be better served by three festivals instead of one. You could do a more local, more aboriginal festival somewhere closer to the mountains, a more LGBTQ+ positive event celebrating local pride, and a music festival open to any performer with the guts to get on stage. These three events events would, I think, offer more focused cultural experiences for both residents and visitors in Taitung, and there wouldn't be anything stopping anyone from attending all three of them.
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