The Sound of Resilience: Taroko's Quake-Hit Community Holds Cultural Concert

TaiwanPlus News

After a devastating earthquake hit the area in April, it will take at least five years and tens of millions of US dollars before Taroko National Park can fully reopen. But the people that live there are showing the resilience of their community and traditions with a special concert.

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00:00With some of Taiwan's most dramatic natural scenery as a backdrop, the indigenous Taroko

00:10people of the country's rugged east coast celebrate a way of life they've lived for

00:14millennia.

00:19But this performance also includes a dramatization of a more recent event, when the community

00:25was shaken by an earthquake.

00:30Just seven months ago, a 7.2 magnitude quake left 18 people dead and hundreds injured nationwide.

00:37Many in this national park, where rock falls and landslides have left most of the park

00:41inaccessible, decimating the local tourism-based economy.

00:49Now this annual concert is being held at the visitor's centre, the only safe part

00:54of the park.

01:26Damage to roads, hiking trails, bridges and car parks is extensive.

01:30Work to reconstruct the park and make it safe will cost tens of millions of US dollars,

01:35take years and is easily disrupted.

01:55Organisers hope that as local indigenous people perform alongside Taiwan's big hitters

02:10like the National Symphony Orchestra, it will demonstrate that although Taroko's natural

02:15scenery is damaged, its culture continues.

02:19The scars of the earthquake are still evident on the hills of this national park, but attendees

02:24say that this valley and its people have a powerful resilience rooted in nature.

02:30It's just a matter of time, they say, until this area returns to its former natural beauty.

02:36John Su and Rick Lowatt in Hualien County for Taiwan Plus.

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