Cultural Heritage Department of Taichung City

The Ministry of Education unveiled the list of honorees for the 2025 Local Languages Outstanding Contribution Award on December 3, 2024. Among the recipients is Liao Ying-chu, recognized with the Individual Award for his dedicated work in preserving the Atayal Sqoyaw Group oral tradition, an intangible cultural heritage in Taichung. The award will be presented on February 21, 2025. Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Chen Chia-chun recently paid a visit to Liao Ying-chu to acknowledge his unwavering commitment to preserving the oral tradition of the Atayal people.

According to Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Chen Chia-chun, Heping District in Taichung is a key settlement for the Atayal people. With no written script, the Atayal community relies on oral traditions—spoken narratives and melodic chants—to preserve their history and customs, achieving a cross-generational cultural expression. It is also a core aspect of Taiwan's Indigenous cultural heritage. In traditional Atayal society, social operations within tribal communities, such as mediation, matchmaking, and even the preservation of historical memories and cultural inheritance, are conducted by their ancestors through spoken narratives and melodic chants.

Director Li Chih-fu of the Cultural Heritage Department elaborated that to preserve indigenous cultural heritage, Taichung City designated the “Atayal Sqoyaw Group Oral Tradition” as a cultural heritage in 2018, naming Mr. Liao Ying-chu as a preserver. As a member of the Atayal Sqoyaw group, Mr. Liao is not only fluent in the Atayal language but also deeply knowledgeable about the social and cultural significance of Atayal oral traditions, as well as the history of tribal origins and migrations. He is one of the few elders in Heping District’s Sqoyaw community along the Dajia River basin who can convey these traditions in traditional Atayal, highlighting his invaluable role in preserving Atayal culture.

Liao Ying-chu, born in 1942 in Sqoyaw (in Pingteng Village, Heping District, Taichung), studied at National Chengchi University’s Department of Western Languages in 1962 and was part of the first generation of Indigenous university students in Taiwan. In 1969, he received a scholarship to study agricultural economics at Kochi University in Japan. Since 1971, he has been recording Atayal language materials using a tape recorder, later transcribing them into Romanized characters and compiling the Atayal Dictionary. His research resulted in over 384 subtopics, covering a broad spectrum that reflects the culture and history of the Atayal tribe, such as the origins and legends of the Atayal people, names of men and women, plant names, animal names, as well as interpersonal relationships, songs, healing methods, and shamanistic practices. Due to his advancing age, Mr. Liao will soon move to Japan to live with relatives but plans to continue his efforts to refine the Atayal Dictionary while abroad.

Director Chen Chia-chun of the Cultural Affairs Bureau paid a special visit to Liao Ying-chu to convey admiration and thanks for his work in preserving the Atayal language dictionary and historical records, as well as for promoting the language. They also discussed the possibility of various publication formats for the Atayal language dictionary. Liao Ying-chu, a key figure in advancing the Atayal oral tradition, received the Ministry of Education's 2025 Local Languages Outstanding Contribution Award, which is also a proud moment for Taichung City. Congratulations were offered on this achievement.

(Liao Ying-chu, a preserver of the Atayal Sqoyaw Group oral tradition)