Discovering the Rich Cultural Heritage of Kudrengere Field Trip to Wutai Township
On December 7th, 2022, students from the class of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, with the lead of Professor Li, Yuh-Yuh, have the chance to visit the Rugai tribe in Wutai Township, where they experienced the traditional way of life. This field trip is very helpful for students to get to learn about both cultural and educational aspects of indigenous people in the country.
Set off from National Sun Yat-sen University, students spend time on the bus watching beautiful scenes along the road with mountains and falls. They reached the avenue at 10:30 am, then moved to Sama Restaurant, where they had a cooking class, learning to cook Taro Rice Cake with Pork (豬肉芋頭糕) and Aiyu jelly (愛玉). They had a wonderful time together full of knowledge and laughter.
After enjoying lunch in the restaurant, students visited the Wutai Rukai Cultural Relics Museum, accompanied by 貝若桑 as the tour guide. The museum amazed both students and Professor Li. They learn more about the Rugai people's housing and living environments, including places with different functions such as cemeteries, bridal chambers, and so on. Impressively, the tribe has many rules regarding the training of male members, making brave and bold warriors out of them to protect their tribes from hostile forces.
Afterward, students moved to the first floor to see the exhibition on Kinlane village. Due to the natural disaster back in 2009, people in this village had to move to another place. However, they do not want their offspring to forget about their origins, so they decided to hold this exhibition. Every member of the village used stones to build a replica of their house to let later generations know about where they used to live. The exhibition provides an immersive and authentic experience for students to have an insight into tribal architectures.
In the end, Professor Li thanked 貝若桑 for spending her time explaining to students everything about the tribe. After having a picture together, they went down the mountain to enjoy some delicious donuts and jelly from the well-known restaurant in Wutai Township. The field trip sure is an enriching and insightful experience for students.
This memorable trip offered a glimpse into the unique and diverse cultural heritage of Taiwan, Throughout the activity, students admired the stunning natural scenery, participated in intriguing local activities, tasted authentic local cuisine, and also learned about the one-of-a-kind tribal culture of the Rugai. Moreover, their tribal lifestyle and farming industry are exemplars of putting the sustainable ideology into practice, students could learn a lot of things regarding SDGs outside the classroom.