Whitehorn: Paiwan Collection
Permanent URI for this collection
The World Oral Literature Project is pleased to host its first online collection of heritage recordings, deposited by John Whitehorn. This collection is based on Reverend Whitehorn's work with the Paiwan-speaking communities of Taiwan in the 1950s. Project staff provided assistance by digitising legacy audio tapes in order to provide basic metadata for each recording.
Paiwan is an Austronesian language spoken in the mountains of Taiwan's southern tip. Most of the younger generation now no longer speak Paiwan, having received their education in Mandarin Chinese. Whitehorn's collection includes recordings made in 1954 in Pingtung, a city near to many northwest Paiwan villages. Other recordings include commercially produced songs in Paiwan as well as in other languages of Taiwan: Bunun (central mountains), Amis (east) and Atayal (north).