A Brief Introduction of the Taiwan Ethnography Video and Audio Archive

　　The purpose of this project Taiwan Ethnography Video and Audio Archive is to digitalize important ethnographic audio-video collected by the Museum of Institute of Ethnography of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Beginning in 1984, this material was mostly gathered over the last twenty-five years in various research projects under the direction of Institute of Ethnology Research Fellow Hu Tai-li. It includes about 2,600 videotapes and films, 270 audiotapes, and 8300 photographs of different formats, and is currently the largest collection of ethnographic audio-video in the field of Taiwanese anthropology.

　　This first hand data, gathered by researchers engaged in participant observation and socio-cultural practice in the field, encompasses Taiwan’s various ethnic groups and includes audio-video materials featuring aborigines, which speak Austronesian languages, Chinese-dialect speaking Taiwanese, Hakkas, and veteran-mainlanders from mainland China. It displays the richness and diversity of Taiwanese culture and provides a great resource for researching and understanding the transition from tradition to modernity faced by Taiwan’s ethnic groups.

　　This project has a priority to digitalize video tapes, films, and audio tapes, and organize them into the following categories based on nature of research and presentation: Taiwan Aboriginal ceremonial songs and dances, Paiwan ceremonies and legends, Changing ceremonies of the Saisiat, Paiwan nose and mouth flutes, Formosan Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe collections , Puyuma shamans and ceremonies, Rebuilding the Amis ancestral house, Taiwanese Minnan and Hakka villages, Oral history of veteran-mainlanders, Ethnographic Documentary Production. From 2007 to 2015, digitalization has completed with the support of the National Digital Archives Program.