Washing away vanity

May Chin is best known for her voice and the roles she played on television and in films. But her new role as an aboriginal legislator, her voice has grown stronger

TAIPEI TIMES Apr 20, 2002
By Yu Sen-lun

▲Legislator and aboriginal rights activist May Chin speaks with the Taipei Times.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

She is legislator May Chin (高金素梅), Atayal name Jiwas Ali. In all the various public roles she's played, Chin always leaves an impression.

Two weeks ago, accompanying her as she questioned Premier Yu, were a group of activists from different aboriginal tribes. Together, they sang traditional fight songs. Most of the singers likely had sung and protested in front of the Legislative Yuan many times before, but heir voices were scarcely remembered.

But now, with Chin singing with them, the spotlight was focused on them. And thanks to the media attention, the long-neglected nuclear waste problem on Orchid Island was finally being heard by the general public.

"It is important that the needs of Aborigines be expressed through her," said Chin Chiu-yen (高金秋燕), Chin's older sister.

This is a role that Chin herself -- as well as her many fans -- had never imagined her playing during her 20 years as a singer and television and movie star.

"This was never in my career plan," Chin said. Before stepping into politics just a few months ago, she claims she did not even know the names of many government officials. 
 
"If it wasn't that fire, which gave me the chance to take up the responsibility, if it wasn't for my liver cancer, which made me re-examine where my life belonged, I would not have become what I am now. I feel my ancestral spirit has quietly led my life in this direction," she said.

▲May Chin was unaware of her heritage as a youth.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHIN CHIU-YEN

Chin's look today usually includes little or no make-up. Only in her gestures and expressions can one find her star quality.

Stepping into the entertainment field at the age of 20, Chin began as a singer on variety shows. After publishing a few records, she began acting in soap operas in the 1980s. A drama called Love, in which she played a hard-working and devoted mom, made her a household name and earned her up to NT$20,000 per episode.

Chin also began a series of concerts with sexy and sensational performances, and her name became associated with many famous men, from Hong Kong stars to business tycoons. "Earnest and emotionally expressive" were the usual media comments about her.
 

▲Chin played a mother in the soap opera Love.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CTS

"I was very conscientious about work. I would ask the director to shoot the scene again when I wasn't satisfied with my performance, even if the director said it was okay," Chin said. "I felt strongly about every person, every small thing that happened around me. Expressing more emotion and feeling resulted in feeling hurt afterward," she said, referring her days in show business.

Perhaps because of her expressiveness, she landed a role in Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet, playing a poor artist from China jealous of her fake husband and his boyfriend. The film won the Golden Bear at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival and earned her international fame.

"In that past, I never had a strong awareness of my Atayal identity. Not many people knew of my aboriginal background," Chin recalled.

During the height of her show business career, Chin was involved in a tragic accident. Her wedding costume and style company, May-lin Weddings, at that time a luxurious, up-scale boutique, had a fire. Five people were killed and the five-story building housing the company was destroyed. She herself was injured by heavy smoke. Chin faced a lawsuit for compensating her employees who died and she was forced to give up her career as a singer and actress.

Two years later, well-known as a drinking queen who treated XO like water, Chin was diagnosed with cancer of the liver and had 8cm of her liver resected.

"After she fell ill, her strength of life became stronger. She went down to see the victims of the 921 earthquake in Taichung, near our mother's hometown," Chin's sister recalled.

The sisters are half aboriginal. Their mother is Atayal and their father comes from China. According to Chin, her aboriginal awareness began the moment before her mother passed away.

"My mom said to me `take me to my hometown' before she closed her eyes. I was shocked and had goosebumps all over my body. I'd never thought to ask where I came from, where my home was. At that time, `home' was a very vague idea," she said.

Now, of course, Chin has found her home -- her "origins," in her words -- the tribal identity of her people. After setting up the May Chin Liver Cancer Support Association, Chin became more acquainted with her aboriginal friends and neighbors. Through their persuasion, Chin decided to run for the legislature.

"She learns very fast. We could see that she cares about the issues from the bottom of her heart," said Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑), a long-time aboriginal rights activists from the Tribe Workshop (部落工作隊). "We only knew her for three weeks, while working on the Tungpu Bunun tribe's mudslide problem. She had never shown a bit of the superficiality usually seen in those ex-celebrity lawmakers," Chang said.

▲Chin gained wide acclaim for her role in The Wedding Banquet.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CMPC

Chin's office director, Chung Chi-fe, from the Tao tribe on Orchid Island, was also a former aboriginal activist leader in the 1980s. Chung has been the office director for two former aboriginal legislators, and also used to be a news reporter and editor at TVBS -- a man highly skilled in legislative affairs, aboriginal issues and the role of the media.

He told Chin to stick to the aboriginal rights platform and raise the issues to the level of people vs people (Aborigines vs Han), which they believe to be the core of Aborigines' problems.

Donning her vivid costume, Chin made an impression as a legislative freshman.

"Today I've returned to the look of my people, and I'm asking this question on their behalf for the injustice and suffering of the past 56 years...," she said as she began questioning the premier.

In private, she told her workers and assistants that having survived cancer, and now looking back, "since I've been involved with the aboriginal tribes, I feel reborn. And all my past seems vain."

▲"My mom said to me ' take me to my hometown' before she closed her eyes. I was shocked and had goosebumps all over my body. I'd never thought to ask where I came from." May Chin.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

The reborn Chin now has a different language and different gestures. She often uses words like "we," "our people," and "nation." She is more assertive when talking and all she wears is traditional aboriginal clothing.

In her office are big aboriginal wooden sculptures, photographs and artwork, creating the relaxed feeling of an aboriginal gallery. All her 11 staff members wear aboriginal-styled vests, both in and outside the legislature.

"I think I can be the best mouthpiece promoting aboriginal arts and culture," she said as she put on a CD of the aboriginal band The Flying Fish and Cloud Panther Music Collective (飛魚雲豹音樂工團).

"Monday to Friday I work here and the Legislative Yuan. On the weekends, I go around the mountains to deal with tribal problems. This is a very solid and meaningful life," she says.

The only person who's worried about her new job is Chin's sister. "She's a Virgo, type-A blood, a typical perfectionist. I always need to remind her to take a rest during her busy schedule," she said.

From a past as an artist who was all about self-expression, to a politician concerned about her nation and her people, Chin seems to have shed her past ego.

"When I speak for the people, I'm no longer me ... But when I go back to the tribes -- to my childhood village, singing with sister friends -- I'm me again. I seem to have found the things lost in my childhood," Chin said.

So, will Chin go back to show business again? "It's impossible to act, because of the condition of my health. But I will continue singing. Singing is a natural gift for me. I will probably sing more of our traditional songs, rather than pop songs," she said.

The struggle of the Taiwanese Aborigines

< Days Japan 2006 >

A Song to Take Back the Souls 
Kao Chin Su-Mei of Taiwan remembers the moment when she first truly understood her aboriginal roots: By chance one day.she had come cross a photograph at the house of a friend. The photo showed a soldier of the Japanese military forces chopping off the head of a warrior from theTaiwanese indigenous Atayal tribe that hadopposed Japanese rule in Taiwan. Upon seeing the photo, Kao Chin Su-Mei recalls,she got goose bumps all over her body andshed scalding tears of both anger and sadness. She then understood. Now a prominent activist and member of the Taiwanese parliament, Kao Chin Su-Mei -- alsoknown by her native name of Giwas Ali --has been struggling along with her peopleever since for justice not only in the legalrealm but in the spiritual realm as well.
 
Japan invaded the island of Taiwan in1895 and occupied it for 50 years up to theend of World War II in 1945. The Japanese occupiers lumped together the various aboriginal tribes living in the Taiwanese highlands under the single tribal name of "Takasago" and brutally oppressed them.

Following an uprising of about 300 aboriginal Taiwanese on Oct. 27, 1930 at Wushe in central Taiwan that left an estimated 134 Japanese and two Taiwanese dead, the Japanese military formed Taiwanese aboriginals into military units called the "Takasago Volunteer Army" as a way of "fighting barbarians with barbarians" and subduing the native population. "The aboriginal people who staged the uprising at Wushe were neither the 'animals' nor 'barbarians' that the Japanese occupation rulers imagined them to be," Kao Chin Su-Mei says. "The leader of the rebllion, Mona Rudao, had a clear understanding of Japan's military capability. We, as the tribal descendants, must take seriously the reason for such an uprising in which he was willing to risk his own life." The Takasago Volunteer Army was also forced to fight and die for Japan's emperor on Asia-Pacific battlefronts during WWII. Like other Japanese war dead, the souls of many of the aboriginal Taiwanese war dead were then enshrined as living gods at Yasukuni Shrine, a Japanese Shinto shrine located in downtown Tokyo.

In 2005, more than 50 aboriginals from Taiwan's foggy highlands, clad in ethnic dress, arrived in Japan. As surviving family members of the Takasago Volunteer Army warriors, they were in Japan to take home to Taiwan the souls of their ancestors, still enshrined as gods at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, through the symbolic action of singing and dancing in their ancient indigenous tradition.

They were also there to lend support to Kao Chin Su-Mei, the indigenous Taiwanese parliamentarian who was representing a group of plaintiffs from her country that had filed a lawsuit at the Osaka High Court in Japan in protest of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's continued visits to the controversial Shinto shrine. The Osaka High Count went on to dismiss the Taiwanese plaintiffs' demands for "reflection, apology and compensation" from Japanese government. But that defeat did not deter them: Following the Japanese court's decision, the indigenous Taiwanese delegation repeatedly sang an aboriginal song called "Winter Festival" in the hallways of the Japanese courthouse as a way to liberate their ancestors' spirits from Japan. The Taiwanese aborigines vow to keep on singing until both legal and spiritual justice is done.

1000 Peace Women Across the Globe

 
Kao Chin Su Mei is a legislator who fights for the rights of aboriginals of Taiwan and Orchid (Lanyu) Islands. Kao has reactivated aborigines’ rights movements, silent for years. In 2004, Kao consolidated the effort of aboriginal representatives in the Legislative Yuan to pass the Basic Law for Aboriginals.

Kao Chin Su Mei was a famous performing artist with a promising career until eight years ago when she found out that she had liver cancer. One month after she had surgery, the great earthquake of 1999 hit Taiwan. Kao’s attitude towards life was transformed. Together with other charity relief forces, she visited the aboriginal villages and started her new career, fighting for their rights. In 2002, Kao was elected legislator in Taiwan’s parliament. Many were skeptical about this career change. She knew of their doubts and decided to prove them wrong through action. She worked hard, found good aides, visited every village and recorded their lives using the footage as evidence for her debates at the Legislative Yuan.

In May 2002, Kao demanded on official apology from the minister of economy for a nuclear waste disposal project in the Orchid (Lanyu) Island, where the Yami tribe resides. TV cameras showed a relentless Kao Chin Su Mei, dramatically in contrast to the former artist. This changed the way people viewed her. On 26 October 2002, Kao initiated a social movement for the revival of traditions, opposing the Magau National Park. This not only prevented the approval of the program, but also reactivated aboriginal movement in Taiwan. ”You cannot gain your dignity without action. You can only defend yourself against the violence of the government by demonstrating the integrity of your power. A movement does not mean bloodshed. You can only touch people’s hearts by showing how persistent you are”, says Kao.

KAO CHIN SU MEI
( Giwas Ali )

Brief biography

◎ actress celebrity Kao Chin Su-Mei, first became known to the international community for her award-winning role in the feature film “Wedding Banquet” as the best actress in the 1993 Independent Spirit Awards in San Diego, California and the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival; and

◎ Ms. Kao starred in movies and seven television series, including the popular drama series “Love,” and released five music albums; and

◎ Ms. Kao was elected a national senator in the Fifth Legislative Session in 2001 as the first-ever female aboriginal parliamentarian in the Republic of China; and

◎ Senator Kao strived through her legislative role causing the removal of nuclear waste from Orchid Island and the return of Luh-Luh Valley with its natural hot springs to its aboriginal inhabitants; and

◎ Senator Kao authored and led to the passage of senior citizens annuity legislation in 2002, specifically benefiting aboriginal elders; and

◎ Senator Kao, as the champion for the restoration of aboriginal heritage in traditions, cultures, and history, encouraged the learning of aboriginal cultures, and thus generated positive ethnic images, and instilled the pride and tribal interests among the aborigines; and

◎ Senator Kao vigorously pursued and attained in 2002, 2003, and 2004 special national appropriations designated for the improvement of aboriginal benefits in education, healthcare, clean water, safe roads, as well as safe beaches; and

◎ Senator Kao successfully amassed an ad hoc inter-party coalition within the parliament of the Republic of China in January 2003 to thwart the passage of a budget for further developing detrimental and intrusive tourism in the Ma-Gao National Park, including the Thao Tribal sacred sites nearby Sun-Moon Lake, and thus preserved pristine land and forests; and

◎ many of ancestors of the Taiwanese Aborigine, a collectively peace-loving mountain people of simple lives, were coerced into Japanese Imperial Army by the colonial government, and consequently killed in mass during WW II; and

◎ the Taiwanese Aborigines killed in action were involuntarily enshrined in the notorious Yasukuni Shrine by the Japanese Government during or after the war of aggression and rampage against other countries in the Asian-Pacific region; and

◎ the descendents of these aborigines slain in battles do not want the names of their ancestors forever associated with the convicted war criminals of WW II who are, still in modern times, ritualistically worshipped by Japanese rightwing extremists in purported religious ceremonies alien to the Tai-Ya Aborigines;  and

◎ the descendents of these deceased aborigines demand Japan to let go their ancestors who are entrapped even in their afterlife by their Japanese conquerors in a place dedicated to glorify militarism and Japan’s brutal expansionism; and

◎ Senator Kao, as the prime leader of her aboriginal constituents, investigated, commenced and continue to lead legal battles in courts to remove the names of their ancestor from the scandalous Yasukuni Shrine; and

◎ Senator Kao, a devoted tribal advocate for aboriginal rights, has become a role model for all oppressed peoples, especially to the younger generations of the aborigines.