Last week the relatively new local TV channel with global aspirations Taiwan+ broadcast the first episodes of the documentary series ‘Healing Island.’ I have so much enjoyed to make this series with my dear June, with her Canjune assistants and with videographer Yen-Hao Chen. It is based on the book of the same title by June and Yang Chih-Kai, which has been translated into English (but not yet published) – that’s how I could prepare myself as a presenter.
For each of dozens of trees there are tons of interesting stories, facts, references, from indigenous uses of leaves and flowers to chemical composition and on to new research into medicinal applications. My job was to absorb this very dense information and to create a story out of it that I could convincingly tell in my own words. Obviously I left out all the complicated chemical-aromatic details: some terms I would not even be able to remember… I am also not very good at memorising the long list of diseases that the leaves, fruits, bark etc. of these trees could cure (remember, it is ‘healing island!’ written by an aromatherapist).
That meant I had to look for additional material to talk about. It was fascinating to dive deeper into the local cultural stories, and learn how important plants have always been for the indigenous people of Taiwan such as the Bunun, Paiwan and Atayal. There are accounts of Dutch colonisers of 400 years ago and of the mainland Chinese pirates and officials soon after; of scientists that worked on the determination of species and gave them names throughout the centuries; of course there is the Han people that became the dominant population and brought their own knowledge and customs; I read riveting stories of British and Canadian explorers and missionaries, like the book by George Mackay, who is well-known locally; not to forget Japanese anthropologists and botanists who pushed Taiwan into the modern times, but then also took away so much of the indigenous peoples (land, rights, dignity, customs), just like the Dutch and the Chinese before them. Through the lens of trees and plants you will see a rich panorama of this island’s botanical, cultural and ethnic variation.
The whole project really kicked off at the book launch, where we were given strips with the oil extractions of several trees. One of them blew me away, so I confirmed with the Canjune staff which tree it was from. Kewra, was the answer. Later I asked June about it; she had no idea what I was talking about. But when I produced the strip, on which I had written the aroma’s name, she recognised it and told me the name she uses: screw pine. When we made the episode later, I became more and more intrigued about the names. The tree first turns up in an early description by a Dutch botanist and colonial administrator as Kaida, in a handsomely illustrated book from 1679 with stunning drawings of the tree (see below). This was still before Linnaeus brought the science of naming plants to a new level. The book, Hortus Malabaricus by Hendrik van Rheede, actually was a groundbreaking production involving scholars and other specialists from East and West. It was, for example, the first to show the names of species in many different language groups and script (you can start browsing the book here).
Kewra spelled in various scripts and languages in a 1679 book
Then a certain Georg Everhard Rumphius was the first to name this tree pandanus, after pandang, the Malay name. Later still a young Finnish explorer Peter Forsskål, a student of Linnaeus joined an expedition to North-East Africa and the Arab peninsula. After spending a year in Egypt, collecting and sending back plants to Sweden, the expedition went to present-day Yemen. There Forsskål found the screwpine for sale on a local market, probably imported from India. He gave it its most widely known name: keura odorifera. But soon after he died in Yemen, only 31 years old. This name underwent several more changes, even in recent years, but odorifera remains and indicates how fragrant the plant is perceived to be.
Nowadays scholars can trace back the root of the Latin name pandanus, via Malay pandang, to an older root that possibly derives from Taiwan. The Atayal call this tree pangran, the Kavalan pangzan and the Thao panadan. (And this year I began making a cake at home at June’s request which is called … pandan cake! Using extracts from the plant in our garden).
There were many failures and difficulties and endless searches and some mis-identifications too (corrected by the time we started shooting, to be sure!). More about that some other time.
Next week the next two episodes will be broadcast, as far as I know. Then every two weeks two new episodes of a total of 12 will be shown. They will also go online through various channels later on.
Each episode lasts about 10 minutes.
Link to the Taiwan Plus day-to-day programming:
For Chinese readers/speakers:
Link to the book in Mandarin:
https://reurl.cc/A2M8oj
Link to the podcast about the book in Mandarin:
https://reurl.cc/jy95xm
Featured are some of the photos I made while we researched and shot the episodes.
In Yilan to revive a rare specimen of kasup
One of many types of jasmine
Small section of a single tree that extends far and wide in all directions (not portrayed in the documentary series).
At Yeliu, near the geological park, the location where we shot the kewra/kaida/screw pina/pandanus. Surrounded by surreal geological formations that far supercede the ones where busloads of international tourists flcok every day.
The video team with June
The pandanus, etc.
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