CHEN CHIA CHUN

This photograph was taken in the Tranan Indigenous community of Wulai District, New Taipei City, documenting the revival of a traditional cultural practice that had disappeared locally for many years—a fishing and hunting competition. In the fast-flowing mountain stream, participants lower their bodies toward the water, engaging in a silent dialogue with stone, current, and memory. Their movements embody the Atayal people’s fishing techniques, passed down not through written records, but through generations of lived practice. This is not merely a competition, but a living cultural tradition. Fishing and hunting are shared across genders and form an essential part of coming-of-age education, strengthening community bonds and cultivating respect for the land. Guided by ancestral ecological ethics, participants take only mature fish while releasing the young, sustaining the river’s life cycle. Through this image, I seek to witness a relationship between people and nature that continues to be transmitted, respected, and sustained.