Chinese Name: 巴代
Date of Birth: May 15, 1962
Place of Birth: Taitung County (Eastern Taiwan)
Did You Know?
Badai, a Pinuyumayan writer, is dedicated to writing about indigenous history, with a particular focus on Pinuyumayan shamanic culture and Taiwanese indigenous literature. He writes novels that depict tribal life, drawing from research and interviews with tribal elders to present the traditional sorcery and culture of Pinuyumayan.
Badai comes from the village of Damalagaw in Beinan Township (卑南鄉), Taitung County. He holds a master’s degree in Taiwanese culture from National University of Tainan. He used to be a career soldier and now works full-time as a writer. He also volunteers as a cultural and historical researcher for his community and serves as a lecturer at the General Education Center of National University of Tainan.
In 1997, Badai began writing fiction and initially experimented with various genres such as short stories, essays, poetry, and literary journalism. In March 2000, he published his first short story, “The Goat Horn (沙金胸前的山羊角),” which explores the conflict between indigenous hunting culture and contemporary conservation laws. It was nominated for the United Literature Short Story Newcomer Award (聯合文學短篇小說新人獎) and serialized in Taiwan’s Lih Pao (立報) newspaper. Later, the author adapted this short story into “Hunt (獵),” which was published in Unitas (聯合文學) magazine, marking his entry into literary writing. In the same year, his work “Ginger Road (薑路),” depicting the challenging life of indigenous ginger farmers, won the first China Motor Corporation Indigenous Literature Prize (中華汽車原住民文學獎) for short stories.
Inspired by the essay collection “Once in a While Come by for a Drink (久久酒一次)” by Pinuyumayan writer Paelabang Danapan (孫大川), which mentions the cultural decline of indigenous peoples, Badai became more aware of his ethnic identity and decided to dedicate himself to preserving and writing about cultural history. In 2005, perhaps to give the tribe a certain degree of “right of interpretation” in recorded “historical events” and to fight for the tribe’s own “voice” in today’s society, Badai conceived the idea of writing a novel. Through literature, he aims to help readers better understand the profound meaning of indigenous culture and preserve the related cultural spirit of the tribe.
Badai is a well-planned writer who brings the discipline he acquired as a soldier into his novel writing, making it a meticulously planned process. After expanding his writing to include novels, he has produced four novels related to Pinuyumayan history in just four years. These include “The Seqalu People (斯卡羅人),” “Sorceress Diguwan (笛鸛),” “Warrior Matelu (馬鐵路),” and “Walking Through: The Story of a Taiwanese Indigenous Veteran (走過：一個台籍原住民老兵的故事).”
In these four works, in addition to preserving historical events, various aspects of Pinuyumayan life are carefully depicted, including economic activities, religious beliefs, shamanic rituals, social hierarchy, combat techniques, hunting methods, and matrilineal society. For readers interested in understanding the cultural history of Pinuyumayan, these novels undoubtedly serve as excellent textbooks.
Based on his own community, Badai’s novel “Sorceress Diguwan” is considered the “first epic novel of the Pinuyumayan.” It won two awards in 2008, including the Taiwan Literature Award for Best Novel and the Golden Tripod Award for Best Writer.
The sequel to “Sorceress Diguwan” is “Warrior Matelu,” which is based on historical records from the “Pinuyumayan Chronicle (卑南族誌)” and “Chronicle of Managing the Savages (理蕃誌稿)” during the Japanese colonial era between 1915 and 1919 in Taiwan. It also incorporates the memories and oral traditions of tribal elders and the stories passed down among the community’s sorceresses, all set in the Pinuyumayan Damalagaw community in Taitung County.
In 2013, Badai’s outstanding realistic writing skills and his indispensable position in Taiwanese literary history earned him the 36th Wu San-lian Literature Award (吳三連文學獎). He stated that even though his ethnic culture is gradually declining, its colors still shine brightly, and he hopes to pass it down to future generations through literature.
Badai’s short stories mainly focus on the adaptation of Taiwanese indigenous peoples in modern society, while his novels draw on ethnic history and culture as creative material. His works are characterized by a strong sense of historical presence and rich cultural imagery, making them highly recognizable.