花蓮水舞

Every summer in July and August, Hualien stages an evening show of aboriginal dance, music, and light show in a spectacular lake side setting. Hualien is very rich in aboriginal culture as 30% of the population here is indigenous. We caught the last show of the summer as school starts next week and summer holiday is officially over. The show is free, so is the half hour tour bus ride to and from the show.....what a deal.

On weekends, there are fireworks....

The native people here blend in quite well with Chinese people and there are many mixed bloods. They have no resentment against Chinese, but still do against Japanese because during the 50 years of Japanese occupation of Taiwan, aboriginals were treated badly. The costumes, the colors, remind me very much of native Polynesians. Here are the links for better presentation of the water dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jduSb9kWyfM&feature=related

Think something like this will be embraced in Victoria? Inner harbor will be a perfect venue, except, you guessed it, parking problems.....How about Elk lake? A celebration of the aboriginal culture could become a new tourist draw and may add more to the tourism industry.......