—Interrogates, deconstructs and ponders the Atayal perspective on life and the meaning of existence.

The author uses a magical realism approach to present over a century of history, describing how the indigenous Atayal dealt with their progressively changing circumstances in Taiwan. The narrative centers on the stories of four Atayal of the Watan Clan and their real and imagined dialogues across a broad sweep of time…spanning watershed developments such as the Qing Era Aboriginal Control Office period (pre-1895), the Takoham War (1886-92), and the White Terror Period (postwar period) as well as Qing, Japanese, and Nationalist Chinese administrations. The plight of the Atayal as a put-upon colonial population through it all is brought into sharp focus using historical records, remembrances, and anecdotes. As a whole, this work interrogates, deconstructs, and ponders the Atayal perspective on life and the meaning of existence.