In the 41st year of the Republic, Taiwan was navigating the post-Japanese defeat era, under new rule by the Nationalist Government. This period was marked by a collision of values and chaos for all island inhabitants. Ani Savi Mangdavan (hereafter Ani), a Bunun woman born during this tumultuous time, faced myriad challenges: loss of traditional lands, gender power imbalances, and the need to adapt to Sinocentric and capitalist ideologies. It was as if the ground beneath was splitting into two islands, with each foot on separate pieces… Many indigenous people were forced to hurriedly adapt, those who couldn’t were left to drown in the metaphorical flood.
Ani floated and fought her way through these raging currents. At birth, the registration system mandated newborns carry their father’s surname and a Chinese name, disregarding the Bunun naming conventions that included the mother’s name and clan. This led to her name, Lin Rimei, being mistakenly registered as Lin Ruimei—a clerical error that revealed a dark story of Bunun women.
After Ani’s biological father passed away, her mother Savi remarried Ma Qinglong, the cousin of Ma Dashan. Savi planned to take the six-month-old Ani to live with her new husband in Gaoshan. However, Ani’s uncle objected, aiming to keep her for an eventual arranged marriage to gain a rifle as a dowry (yes, for a rifle). Fortunately, Savi hid Ani and fled the next day, thus evading the uncle’s greedy intentions, and allowing Ani to remain with her mother, growing up in the Gaoshan community.
Believing herself to be Lin Rimei, young Ani took on the heavy responsibility of caring for her siblings and managing household chores, attending school just one day a month. School, which should have been a joy for children, became a struggle for Ani, who fell behind and faced punishment from teachers. When asked why she didn’t come to school, Ani truthfully responded, “My mother told me not to study, to take care of my siblings and plant sweet potatoes,” and was subsequently scolded for her honesty.
By the time we were still in school uniforms, shy and in post-adolescence, 16-year-old Ani married Ma Mingyi, Ma Dashan’s son. She raised seven children, missing out on education. It wasn’t until after the heartbreaking loss of her husband Ma Mingyi that Ani found the opportunity to return to school, attending night classes at junior high. She worked at a nine-hole pond during the day and rushed to Fengbin Town to study at night. Sadly, after twelve days, the Ministry of Education discovered her name was registered as Lin Ruimei, not Lin Rimei, and she was forced to drop out due to the discrepancy.
Ani, who hadn’t even completed elementary school, laughed and said, “I only knew how to write ‘I love you’, nothing else.” Driven by the instinct to learn and survive, she began recognizing words while singing hymns in church. Her strong linguistic abilities helped her thrive in diverse communities, making her fluent in Amis, and adept in Hokkien, Hakka, and Sakizaya languages. Gradually, she became a crucial link in her community
Now known as Tina Ani, she is affectionately called Ma Mama by younger Han Chinese. She is the mother of Xiao Ma (Ma Zhongyuan), the daughter-in-law of Ma Dashan, and a respected elder who earned three model mother-in-law awards and two model mother awards after Ma Dashan’s death. Surviving in such harsh conditions required more than talent and strength; it demanded resilience and adaptability. Influenced by patriarchal logic and the era’s mindset, mothers of that generation often placed their role as women last. They honed their skills to make a living, forgetting that in the Bunun name, Ani was always first.
This narrative recalls a scene from the TV series “The Making of an Ordinary Woman,” where a grandmother tells her granddaughter, “I remember when I was young, my parents called me Ayue, friends called me Yueying. After marrying your grandfather, I became Chen Liyueying. Outside, people called me Mrs. Chen, boss’s wife, doctor’s wife, head lady, or mother. At home, they called me mom, and you called me grandma… I haven’t heard my own name in a long time…”
Watching Ma Mama sweat in the kitchen, regardless of the Han logic that labels her as Lin Ruimei, Lin Rimei, or someone’s wife, mother, or grandmother, in the Bunun perspective, she remains Ani Savi Mangdavan—a Bunun child carrying her mother’s name Savi and clan name Mangdavan, never forgetting that Ani is always first.
Note: Ani is Lin Ruimei’s tribal name, Savi is her mother’s tribal name, and Mangdavan is her matrilineal clan name. Typically, Bunun names follow the format of personal name + paternal clan + maternal clan, but this might be an exception.
*This article was published in PULIMA LINK By: Ouyang Mengzhi.
Mina Ou-Yang (minaoy@gmail.com). A non-native of Hualien, I am a freelance worker who moved here, drawn by the allure of the grand mountains, vast oceans, trees, and whales. If I could sow seeds with my words along the thorny paths of gender, age, culture, and environment, I believe I could lived happily ever after.
