| dc.description.abstract | Folklores are endowed with unique and rich stories reflecting the spirit of a race via collective creation with oral diction. Folklores are also the best way to pass down the ethnic cultures. In the contemporary society of massive information flows and advanced civilization, the intellectual products of our ancestors are oftentimes attacked and buried in the current of time. Thus, the stories of social taboos, experiences and ideas that our forefathers passed down by speaking to their children after dinner no longer exist in the memories of the new generation.
The living environment of Hakka and aboriginal people are very similar. Therefore, the folklores of these two ethnic groups were easily shared, borrowed or influenced with each other. This Study targets the stories of animal metamorphosis in the folk stories between Hakka and aboriginal groups in Taiwan, and analyzes the differences and similarities in cultural and ethnic features of these two groups by means of comparing the story texts and literatures. Meanwhile, the Study hopes to compare the internal differences of these two groups based on regions and races.
By collecting and summarizing the regions, races, types/rationales of metamorphosis in the stories, the author hopes to explain the cultural connotation of Hakka and aboriginal culture from the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship between parents and their children, the relationship between religion and social customs, and the images of women. The Study presents different scenarios in a family, such as the bondage between husband and wife, the broken relationships, and loss of families, hoping to investigate the differences and similarities in a matrimony bond of the two ethnic groups. The Study found out that the relationship between husband and wife in Hakka people is rather imbalanced, and the role of wife is almost invisible. To the contrary, the wives in aboriginal families have strong characters and tend to be more straightforward in expressing themselves. In addition the Study compares the cultural features of parenthood by presenting the texts of conflicts between parents and children, conflicts between family members, punishments from parents to their children and the cause-effect relationship. The Study also found out that the parent-child relationships in Hakka families are very extreme: Either the parents love and spoil their children, or they oppose against each other. The way of raising children among aboriginal people is also very distinguished. One type of family entrusts human beings to take care of the offspring of animals, whereas the other type of family tends to be oblivious to their survival. The Study also presents the folk beliefs and social norms of these two groups with texts of folklores about people’s dreams of contributing to home towns, belief in destiny and “Fong-shui”, taboos, and life education. The Hakka people are greatly influenced by Buddhism and Confucius thinking so most of the focuses in their stories are about teaching people to behave well and contribute to the society. On the other hand, the nature of aboriginals is pure and austere, and they worship everything in the Mother Nature as well as the spirit of their ancestors. They also believe that everything and everyone in this world is equal; nothing/no one is more superior to the other. Lastly, the Study analyzes the images of women by presenting the texts of stories about good and bad women, and the promotion of feminism. The Study found out that the women of both Hakka and aboriginal families are required to learn how to undertake family chores since they were little, including sewing and agricultural/farming skills. They have to be trained to be equipped with the capabilities of taking care of affairs inside and outside their home life as a token of supporting their families.
The author noticed that the preservation of words leaves traces of research for the future generations. However, it also leads to a monotonous view. That is to say, the authors or writers of the folklores only selected the most attractive parts of a story and edited the content by ignoring the less attractive parts for some unknown reason. They may also keep the original plots of the story without changing anything. But the stories will still become more and more diverse and different. The choice of language and rhetoric has altered the original spirit of the stories. I sincerely hope that the future studies will be able to make up for this shortcoming.
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