“Babang?” Lung-kuang and I asked her.
“Livangvang,” replied Syapen Milimwang. “It means ‘flying fish’ in our Tao language.
Ferry to Lanyu from Taiwan
Tourists come here to Lanyu from Taiwan and around the world to see them fly. Our young men have fished them for generations. The dugout canoes they use are world famous too.” Livangvang was one of several seafood delicacies our Tao (sounds like Da-oh) friends served us at a welcome dinner later that evening.
Over the past two years, due to the Covid pandemic, I have been skyping with Syapen’s son Syan all the way from my home in Toronto to their home on Lanyu (Orchid Island). This was the first time I could meet them and others on the Tao Bible translation team in-person and see where they live. When the internet connection has worked well on Lanyu, which has not always been the case, we have enjoyed good translation checking sessions online. To communicate 12,000km apart has been amazing! To speak in-person, live together and eat together for two short days was wonderful, but took a little more planning and effort.
The Bible Society in Taiwan arranged for me and Lung-kuang (LK) to visit the Tao team in our roles as Bible Translation Advisors. LK flew an hour from Taipei to Taitung in southeast Taiwan, where I met him at the airport early Thursday morning (Nov 24). We planned to board the small 19-seat airplane from Taitung to Lanyu at 10am for the half-hour flight. But rain and winds made landing on the short runway precarious. One by one flights to Lanyu were delayed then cancelled, until the last flight at 4pm was cancelled too. We had just experienced what Syapen, Syan, their family and Tao people experience regularly when you live on an ancient volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, 90km southeast of Taiwan.
Early Friday morning, after one more failed attempt at the airport, LK and I took a taxi to Fu-kang Fishing Harbour where we were fortunate to catch the ferry. About one-fifth the size of the ferry my wife and I took from Saint John to Digby last August, LK and I were seated in close quarters with 200 other passengers, a few dogs, luggage and food supplies. Looking out, you could see the water line just below the sealed windows on our right and left. It was calm when we left Taiwan, but before long the Pacific Ocean swells and waves were nearly two meters high. When the port side of the ferry dipped low, all you could see out the port windows were watery waves or white spray, while windows starboard were full of blue sky. Then riding the swells, we saw waves and spray out the starboard side windows, and blue sky on the port side. It was “fish-tailing” in the stern while riding the swells that made one’s stomach queasy. A calm day we were told! I have a new appreciation for Psalms 18 and 69 and some of the watery imagery elsewhere in the Bible.
Crowds greet the ferry on Lanyu
Two hours later, the small ferry landed safely on Lanyu where we were greeted with flags, banners, drums and firecrackers. “Ah, it’s Taiwan’s national 9-in-1 election day tomorrow. They’re here to greet Tao people returning home to vote—not us!” We were thankful when Syan finally found us in the crowds by the dock and took us for a box lunch on one of the open wooden platforms where Tao people traditionally meet with their friends. This platform was right beside the narrow airport landing strip which itself runs parallel to the ocean. “Not much room for error landing a plane on that! Explains why flights get cancelled—for safety reasons.” I’m glad my first visit to Lanyu was by boat, the old fashioned way, another experience I could share with my new Tao friends.
After lunch, Syan drove us along the picturesque coastal road back to his house. The narrow 1-1½ lane road winds for nearly 40km around the island. We had to slow down for oncoming cars or motorcycles, as well as goats and pigs wandering along the roadside. Hit one of the tagged animals and you must pay the owner for damages!
A Tao welcome platform beside the Lanyu airstrip
Paul and Syan with Little Lanyu behind
The view looking east over the Pacific Ocean from Syan’s home was spectacular. The hot moist breeze let this Canadian bathe in his own sweat for the rest of our visit. Syan told me of happy memories he has when one summer he visited his former Yu-shan Seminary teacher, Rev Murray Garvin, and canoed on Bird Lake near Bracebridge north of Toronto. Quite a contrast.
Lanyu coast and Little Lanyu offshore
Lanyu coastal road
LK and I were very happy to meet Syan’s wife and young son Joseph. Then he introduced us to his father and mother. Though under 5 feet tall, Syan’s father is filled with the joy of the Lord and is an overflowing fountain of stories and testimonies to what God has been doing among the Tao people over the past 70 years the Gospel of Jesus Christ has spread among the 4000 Tao inhabitants. He is also convenor of the Tao Bible translation team.
Lung-Kuang and Paul with Syan’s Family
Syan’s mother, Syapen Milimwang, has been teaching the Tao language in schools in the six villages around the island for many years. Recently, she felt God’s call to use her Tao language gifts to help translate books in the Old Testament. One of the main reasons LK and I came this visit was to meet her, install Paratext (the Bible translation software we use) on her computer, and to give her a short basic course on how to use it. No more need to draft books in Word; rather, work directly in Paratext. Her son Syan will help her master the basic computer skills after we leave.
Lung-Kuang teaching Syapen Paratext
Translating from a Mandarin-Chinese model text, Syapen has already drafted the book of Psalms and most of Proverbs. She approaches her work with deep devotion, prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Yet there are challenges. Most people know about the one big fish story in the Bible, but as far as we know, there are no stories about flying fish, ‘livangvang’! Syapen asked us, “How do I translate other animals mentioned in the Bible when we have no words for them in Tao?” For a test case, we looked up the word for ‘lion’ to see how the Tao team translated it in their 1994 New Testament. That led us to Revelation 13:2 where comparisons are made with three animals: ‘leopard’, ‘bear’ and ‘lion’. Tao has no words for any of these three, which is probably why the 1994 translation simply calls them all ‘wild animals’. But do we not lose some meaning if we fail to differentiate them? One solution might be to revise the NT translation and call them, ‘a wild animal called an X, a wild animal called a Y, and a wild animal called a Z’, where we can borrow the sounds of X = ‘baw’, Y = ‘siung’ and Z = ‘shrdz’ from Mandarin. Younger and older Tao readers would recognize the Mandarin names for these animals and have a better idea what the beast in Revelation 13 looks like. Or else we might add relevant descriptions for each of the three, though the verse could get quite long.
Lung-kuang with flying fish
On the ‘Amis Bible translation team I have worked with since 2013, we have father-and-daughter translators, Sing ‘Olam and his daughter Iwan Sing. The Tao team is the first I have worked with that has mother-and-son translators. Syan recognizes that his mother has much better Tao language facility than he does. He consults her regularly as he leads the review team which is double checking books in the NT. At the same time, Syan told me quietly during this visit that he has reservations about his mother translating parts of the OT like Proverbs 7 or the Song of Songs. “In our culture we don’t speak openly about those kinds of things. How can my mother translate those verses, let alone have me and the review team ask her questions about some of the words she uses?” A sensitive topic indeed.
Dinner with Tao Bible Translation Team
Late Friday afternoon, Syan and his family took LK and me to dinner at a local seafood restaurant. There we met the rest of the Tao review team. They overwhelmed us with their love and joy at having us come even for this short visit, and the promise of future visits to support them, both in-person and online. One member of the review team is retired evangelist Syaman Javitong (Wang Rung-ji in Mandarin). It turns out that Syaman met LK over 20 years when LK joined three mission trips to lead summer Bible camps for children on Lanyu. Syaman and I stopped counting after 20, the number of mutual friends he and I have. He told us that he worked on the first NT translation (1987-1994) and helped draft several NT books. God has blessed him with many translation gifts and insights which are a great contribution when the team reviews draft translations. After dinner, I reminded everyone that what we do is teamwork: each person using their God-given gifts towards the same goal of translating the whole Bible into their Tao mother-tongue for the 13 churches and all the people on Lanyu. May God continue to help us in the years to come.
Paul, Syan, wife and Syaman Javitong, Lung-kuang
Back at Syan’s house, we chatted with him and his father till after midnight about various thanksgivings and concerns: former lead NT translator Rev Chang Hai-yu who has some health issues but hopefully can help translate OT books too; past help they had translating the NT from Canadian missionary Grace Wakelin (1909-1985) who lived on Lanyu for 25 years, and from Wycliffe Bible translator Ginny Larson who moved to Lanyu from the northern Philippines where she had helped translate a language related to Tao; former cooperation on the NT project between the six Presbyterian churches and the six Roman Catholic churches, plus the one Pentecostal church; future budget concerns to translate the OT; the overall translation process; and the time it will take to translate the whole OT and revise the NT as we all get older.
Sunrise over the Pacific and Tao Church
After sunrise from Syan’s Home. Traditional Tao house in foreground.
Early morning goats on Lanyu
I woke the next morning before 6am, just in time to look outside and see the sun rise over the Pacific and over the cross on top of the Tao Presbyterian church next door where Syan’s father has ministered for more than 30 years. A small herd of 12 or more young piglets ran around outside the traditional Tao house that is built into the ground where Syan’s father grew up. A stone’s throw away on the coastal road, goats, some black some brown, were crossing the road in search of something to eat.
Our flight from Lanyu back to Taiwan
For breakfast we enjoyed another kind of local fish, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, rice gruel and, quelle surprise, French toast with Canadian maple syrup! Afterwards, we prayed for Syan’s grandmother, Syapen’s mother, who lies on a wooden platform near the living room. We praised God for the love of Jesus our Saviour which fills this Tao home and which inspires this family and their friends in the ongoing mission of translating the whole Bible into the Tao language. The family gave us a warm send-off at the Lanyu airport where LK and I boarded the small plane for the 30-minute flight back to Taiwan.
If weather permits the plane to fly or the ferry to sail, LK and I hope to visit the Tao team for a longer in-person visit sometime in the summer of 2023. Until then, we will resume regular skype calls to support Syan, his mother and the rest of the team as best we can.
Tao Jivalino Presbyterian Church on Lanyu
For more information about the Tao people and the Tao Bible translation project, you can check out the following websites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fOtXXihmDU = Taiwan Good TV News (2020), “A decade long translation project of Old Testament in Tao language.”
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3652135 (2019-03-07) Tao people give tips to visitors on Taiwan’s offshore Orchid Island for flying fish season. The 21-minute YouTube video contains lovely scenes even though it is presented in Mandarin.
https://www.dmtip.gov.tw/web/en/page/detail?nid=12
Digital Museum of Taiwan Indigenous Peoples website.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_people
A Lamp for Orchid: A Biography of Grace Irene Wakelin, by Mary Mellows, 1985. Might be hard to find.
A Flaming Fire, by Ginny Larson, 2020. Her autobiography.
