ASCDC
E-NEWSLETTER

Tadao Kano arrived in Taiwan in 1925 and in his book Mountains, clouds and Formosan Aborigines he wrote of his deep affection for the mountains of Taiwan and their people. Now, in 2011, we have an opportunity, through the documentary Through mountain forest－Tadao Kano, to hear older generation Taiwanese climbers Yang Nan-jun Xu Ren-xiu, Liu Ke-xiang talk about Tadao Kano.

The documentary displays the fond recollection of an important figure in another era by society, in records, images and history unearthing the tracks left behind on this land by people, events and things, and, through memory, projecting more levels and feelings. As teacher Zhang Su-fen said “I feel that each step in this journey was at least 80 years deep. As we followed in his footsteps we thought of the hardships Tadao Kano faced then and had a full appreciation of the passion he had for the mountains of Taiwan.” Walking up the mountain trail in 2011 the eyes of Yang Nan-jun gazed at the scenery while, in 1925, it was Tadao Kano. Through records and images they have left behind deep tracks that give us a wider view of this land.
  

Through mountain forest －Tadao Kano describes Tadao Kano's experiences in Taiwan. The documentary was subsidized by the National Science Council’s TELDAP program and released by Academia Historica. Actor Yukihiko Kageyama, who reads Japanese letters out loud in the film Cape No.7, was invited to read excerpts from the book in which Tadao Kano talks of his affection for Taiwan’s mountains and native people, the soft tone and emotion filled words sure to move the listener. At the documentary’s premiere on September 9, Academia Historica president Lu Fang-shang said in a speech “Tadao Kano's deep affection for this land is very moving. The recent film Seediq Bale told the story of conflict between the colonizers and native people who resisted colonization while the documentary we will see today Through mountain forest－Tadao Kano tells us about the deep affection some Japanese had for Taiwan’s aborigines, and the efforts that intellectuals put into understanding the colony; looking at history from a different angle gives us different meaning.” The principal investigator of TELDAP’s 4th Division project, Prof. Liu Jing-yi, also said “This documentary is extremely important in terms of education and we hope that, by showing Tadao Kano's academic persistence and the romance of exploration, it will have a social education function.”

In the documentary we see images of contemporary students carrying out an ecological investigation research on Xue Mountain and, during interviews, one student says: “Tadao Kano is the god of ecological investigation in Taiwan. Driven by passion he went up into the mountains with aborigine porters or a few guides, not just investigating a single species, but carrying out across-the-board cultural, geographic and biological investigation, a really amazing feat.” Tadao Kano laid down the foundation for research into mountains and forest, organisms, aborigines and glaciers in Taiwan and, even today, researchers will compare their findings with information he collected all those years ago.TELDAP’s preservation of images in 2011 allows younger people to understand the stories of those who went before and the past and preserve Tadao Kano’s achievements for posterity.

Through mountain forest－Tadao Kano features sound and images from the Chinese Taipei Film Archive , the Central Library, the Department of Anthropology of National Taiwan University, National Taiwan University Library, the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture and the Japan National Museum of Ethnology, allowing us to see images and materials transcend spatial and temporal barriers through digitization, to be connected and collected and organized, producing a moving story that has a meaningful impact on modern life and spirit.  .

After the screening many members of the audience expressed their feelings about the documentary and the influence of Tadao Kano  can be seen to continue to this day. He left us, in addition to ecological surveys and academic works, a fine example of what a scholar should be. Through mountain forest －Tadao Kano allows us to understand the people of a bygone era and it is to be hoped that it will inspire young people and reawaken an era of exploration.