Luo Huixiangwen/Photography
Zhang Huimei's hometown is Taitung County, which is a gathering place for Taiwan's indigenous people. As early as thousands of years ago, when the Han Chinese had not yet migrated to Taiwan, the indigenous people lived and multiplied on the island. At present, Taitung County also has 6 indigenous ethnic groups such as Ami, Beinan, Lukai, Bunun, Paiwan and Dawu, of which the Ami have the largest population, with a total of about 154,000 people.
Zhang Huimei is not an Ami ethnic group, but a Beinan ethnic group, but the Ami ethnic group has also produced many well-known artists. For example, Luo Zhixiang, as we know her, is known as the "King of Asian Dance", and her mother is Ami. In addition, there are well-known male singer Zhang Zhenyue, well-known composer Li Taixiang, Ami song and ballad national treasure singer Guo Yingnan, and so on, all of whom are Ami ethnic group.
The Ami are a people who can sing and dance. After arriving in Taitung County, we had the privilege of watching a group dance of the Ami ethnic group, which was really pleasing to the eye.
Group dance is a unique cultural form of the Ami people, in the one-and-a-half-hour performance, the men and women on the scene are dressed up, women wear flowers, wear silver jewelry, handbells are crisp and pleasant; men have feathers on their heads, or wear feather crowns, brass bells hanging from their waists, brass bells on their ankles, raising their hands and feet, jingling bells, full of festive sounds.
The dance language of the Ami people tells me that they are holding grand events, simulating labor scenes such as sacrifices, harvesting, fishing and hunting, and sifting rice with various movements, reproducing the real scenes in life, and being highly artistic, exquisite, and vivid. In particular, the wedding dance is very visual, the performance of the groom and the bride is in place, the audience can fully understand what kind of ceremony the Ami wedding is, in the brisk and cheerful dance, folk customs, folk customs, folk feelings are vividly expressed.
