Commercial interests overriding culture

Earlier this month, the mayor of Jian Township (吉安) in Hualien County recruited South Korean professional baseball cheerleader Ha Ji-won to serve as the spokesperson for a local indigenous harvest festival, calling her the “Amis Princess.” The move drew mixed reactions: Bringing in a South Korean celebrity as a brand ambassador and having her dress in traditional Amis clothing was questionable at best.

The harvest festival is a tradition that carries profound cultural significance for Amis. The community gathers to give thanks to heaven and earth for the past year’s blessings, and celebrate with traditional songs and dance. It is a time when community bonds are strengthened. However, political intervention has increasingly turned it into a commercial event. The cultural meaning behind the Amis harvest festival and its traditions have been reduced to secular entertainment that can be bought anytime, anywhere.

Some communities have continued to uphold the true character of the festival. One example in Hualien County is Rueisuei Township’s (瑞穗) Kiwit Village (奇美). For years, it has preserved the cultural traditions of the harvest festival and prevented outsiders from interfering, earning even greater respect and admiration for it. After all, this kind of festival, rooted in reverence for heaven and love for the people, was never meant to be a performance; it is a cultural tradition.

When commercial interests become deeply embedded, they can undermine genuine cultural traditions. If a festival’s sole purpose becomes attracting more public attention, it has essentially been sold in pursuit of capitalist interest. The harvest festival belongs to the community and is about passing on culture; it should not be commercialized for the sake of viewership.

Beyond the clothes she donned that day, how much does the mayor’s choice of spokesperson know about the culture surrounding the festival? Ha might be a popular cheerleader, but she has no connection to Amis culture, and is an unconvincing choice for ambassador.

The only reasonable explanation is that the Jian Township Office simply sought to attract more public attention at the expense of real cultural value. The question is where this attention actually goes — to Ha’s K-pop dance performance, or the harvest festival itself? The risk is that the latter’s meaning is lost altogether.

Chen Chi-nung is a former principal of Kuohsin Junior High School in Nantou County.