Paiwan children’s choir wins honor in Hungary

2016/08/24

The Puzangalan Choir, made up of children from southern Taiwan’s indigenous Paiwan community in Pingtung County, won a silver medal Aug. 21 at the 11th Cantemus International Choir Festival in Hungary, with President Tsai Ing-wen extending her congratulations to the group via her personal Facebook page later that day.

The biennial choir competition took place Aug. 15-21 in northeastern Hungary’s Nyiregyhaza City. Twelve groups from Finland, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey sang ballads from their homelands, as well as religious pieces.

The Puzangalan Choir sang traditional tribal tunes, Mandarin pop songs and a Paiwan-language version of the Republic of China (Taiwan) national anthem that the group performed at Tsai’s May 20 inauguration ceremony in Taipei. Puzangalan means “hope” in Paiwan.

In Tsai’s message to the choir, she thanked the singers for representing Taiwan on the world stage. “This is not only an honor for the Puzangalan Choir, but also for the nation. They are the pride of Taiwan,” she wrote.

The 34-member choir’s European journey was partly funded by the president’s donation of NT$500,000 (US$15,400) from the royalties of a book she published in October last year during her election campaign. “Let us endeavor together to send a most moving voice of Taiwan out to the world,” Tsai wrote on her Facebook page June 15 when calling for donations to help fund the Puzangalan Choir’s trip to Hungary.

Before joining the Cantemus event, the Taipei Representative Office in Hungary arranged for the choir to sing at a Budapest home for the elderly Aug. 13, followed by flash-mob performances at St. Stephen’s Basilica and Heroes’ Square. The next day, the singers traveled to the city of Szerencs in northeastern Hungary to perform at the 25th Zemplen Festival.

Founded in 2008, the Puzangalan Choir has been invited to perform or compete in a number of music events in countries like Germany and Japan. Later this year, the choir is slated to participate in another international competition in South Korea.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=247373&ctNode=2194&mp=9)