I
became involved in the Festival of Nations due to some terrific friendships
that I have established with some enormously bright and cordial people with
ancestry to my beloved Taiwan. I first
went to Taiwan in the summer of 1980 for a year of residence, have lived there
two other times (1985 and 1988-1990), and have returned many times (1995, 1998,
2003, and 2016) for visits. My doctoral research
focused on the fate of Taiwanese farmers during Taiwan’s rapid economic development,
1945-1990; and an ongoing scholarly
interest in Taiwan has led to my writing three books (one in collaboration with
Barbara Reed, my wife and a professor of East Asian religions at St. Olaf
College) on the culture, customs, tales, and history of Taiwan.
Upon
my return from a visit to Taiwan just this past December 2016, I was aching to
gather with Taiwanese people. I attended
a Taiwanese New Year celebration in February, found out about a new group
forming called Reading Yams (which holds periodic meetings featuring speakers
on topics pertinent to Taiwanese history and culture), and at one of these
latter meetings met people who for several decades have been involved in
presenting the Taiwanese exhibit at the Festival of Nations, held annually in
St. Paul.
Our current
Taiwanese exhibit is essentially the same presentation that has run for many
years, demonstrating the traditional Taiwanese wedding ceremony, with some photographic
representation of contemporary wedding celebrations in Taiwan, which are a
fascinating blend of traditional elements and influences from Western wedding rituals. This exhibit is truly magnificent and has won top prize at the Festival of Nations for these many decades of the festival's existence.
The
exhibit features a sedan chair, in which the bride enters at the home of her
parents and which is then carried by male members of the groom’s household to
the latter’s familial home. Once at the
young man’s natal home, bride and groom step carefully over the threshold,
enter the residence and stand before the altar to the ancestors. Here they bow and make offerings of fruit,
tea, cake, incense, and candles as they seek the blessings of prior generations
for their matrimony and let them know of a happy marital union that is likely
to produce offspring for the provision of future generations and continuance of
the familial line.
A ceremony
then ensues in which the groom lifts the bride’s veil and the two then stand
before the young man’s parents. The bride
offers tea to those who are now considered her parents, too, as she dedicates
her life and service to her new family. First
the father and then the mother sip their tea, place cups back on the tray, and
each in turn offers words of good fortune to the young bride (and, by extension,
to the groom, as well) and hand her red envelopes containing money for the
young couple as they begin their new life together. We note to those hearing our explanations
that the colors red and gold are considered the luckiest of colors to the
Taiwanese, and at three places in the exhibit a special golden-colored Chinese
character conveys the meaning of “double happiness.”
Today
(5 May 2017 as I write this) I was one of those explaining these proceedings to
students who came from many middle schools and high schools in Minnesota and
Wisconsin. Some people had braced me for
this onslaught, saying that students, who make their visits on Thursday and
Friday each year of the Festival of Nations, were not particularly attentive
and more interested in just roaming around, eating, and socializing than they
were in the exhibit itself.
I did
not find this to be the case at all.
I
welcomed each student contingent (usually moving together in groups of three to
five) into the display and took them through the exhibit at steps corresponding
to the wedding scenario described above.
They were fascinated that the bride was hoisted in the sedan chair to be
carried by male relatives of the groom for distances of up to ten miles. They marveled at the elaborate ritual procedures,
were riveted as I delivered
an explanation of family defined not just as those living at present but rather
as those who have come before (ancestors), those living now, and those yet to
come (descendants)--- given vivid
testimony at the ancestral altar. They loved
the idea of a monetary gift delivered in the red packet and delighted when I
taught them a bit of Mandarin Chinese: shuangxi, the double happiness
character in gold color.
These
young people, representing many cultures (white kids of various European
ancestry, African American kids, young people with ancestral roots to Somalia,
Laos [Hmong people], Vietnam, Mexico, the People’s Republic of China) were unfailingly
polite. They asked good questions and
listened intently as I explained the entirely different geographical and
cultural settings of Thailand and Taiwan (okay--- so that’s Taiwan now, not Thailand), the very
different history of Taiwan from that of mainland China, and the nature of contemporary
Taiwan as a blend of Han Chinese, yuanzhumin
(aborigine), Japanese, and Western influences.
I saw
young people displaying the same good manners and excitement in watching dance
performances of people of various cultures, including the stunning performance
by the Daguan (“Broad View”)
troop of dancers who train at the Taiwanese Academy of the Arts in Taiwan, a performance that included a dozen segments,
ranging from the poignant to the comical to the acrobatic. At this performance youth from ancestral cultures
spanning the globe sat, often in multiracial groups, spellbound by the talented
young dancers and moved to clap excitedly at many points.
Young
people never disappoint me over the long term and they inevitably respond to my
own teaching. I find them hungry for
information and so glad to meet an enthusiastic conveyor of this information. When treated respectfully, they respond
respectfully; when sensing enthusiasm,
they are themselves enthusiastic.
My experiences
as a presenter at this year’s Taiwanese exhibit at the Festival of Nations
confirms everything I know about education and convey on this blog:
Young people yearn for a substantive education, they want to understand
their own cultures in the context of the great human family of cultures, they
want to experience all of the sites, sights, sounds, colors, smells, tastes, wonder
upon wonder that the wider world has to offer.
How much better off our world would be if adults took young people
seriously, if they themselves became people of knowledge ready to impart that
knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
Young people want so much more than we give them from the exciting world
of knowledge.
We cheat them every day our feet hit the ground for not doing so.
We must honor the spirit that I have observed in young people for over
forty years, this spirit of the great yearning for knowledge, so magnificently
on display in so many colors and cultures that the young people themselves have
brought to the Festival of Nations.
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