SEQALU: Formosa 1867 (aka Lady the Butterfly), Karisi Flowers (傀儡花) (Spoiler Alert)

Just finished episode 3, pacing has improved as events umfold. I have one nitpick… when Pickering has his foot on the desk, his shoes have rubber soles. Those won’t be available until the 1890s, and even then the treads wouldn’t have look so modern.

That is one more reason not to put one’s feet on a desk. :neutral_face:

Guy

Just caught an episode, and while the sets and costumes are pretty impressive, the story seems rather convoluted and the acting is wooden, especially the blond guy who looks like a washed up porn star.

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I don’t pay enough attention to remember what male porn stars look like.

You need to try looking at their faces sometimes. :grin:

I actually think real life Le Gendre has that vibe as well, though perhaps one from the 70s.

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By the way, I’m sure everyone learned of the tragic news already, but are just too sad to mention it…

Camake Valaule, who plays Grand Chief Tauketok in the series passed away a few days ago from cancer.

Camake is a school teacher dedicated to Paiwan culture revival. It took director Tsao a lot convincing for Camake to play the role.

In this TED talk, Camake shared his experience teaching Paiwan traditional music to kids.

His passing is such a tremendous loss for this island.

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There was one scene in episode 4 where the leader of Tshâ-siânn tells Thia̍p-moi that he had taken her parents in and gave them a plot of land when they were driven out from Po-lik. The guy said the line “And he was able to kill many cow-thieves!” almost back to back at least 3 times. It was a bit odd. You could argue he was trying hard to suck up to Thia̍p-moi so that she would help them put in a good word or two, but at least paraphrase or something.

I think the issue with pacing in the first 4 episode might be helped if the show didn’t show us the fate of the entire rover crew from the beginning. Maybe leave Mrs. Hunter’s predicament ambiguous, and let the only survivor tell Le Gendre that he is sure there are other survivors.

That would make the audience (those without prior knowledge of the historical event anyway) to go through the same emotional journey as Le Gendre. In his mind, he would have been almost certain there were survivors, and would have been ensured that Paiwan traditions protected Mrs. Hunter from harm when he embarked from Hú-siânn (present day Tainan). That way there’s more of a sense of suspense and urgency.

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I added spoiler tags. I urge everyone to use it for people who haven’t watched it yet.

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Found some photos from this paper:


Titled: Exploring party under a banyan tree near Ty-ka

Le Gendre is the first from the left, holding maps or documents, and wearing an eye patch. The real Le Gendre lost an eye in the civil war, and had a glass eye, but he would often wear an eye patch anyway. In Pickering’s memoir, Le Gendre once pretended to be so angry that he dug out his own eye, which scared the crap out of the Seqalu people as they’ve never seen an glass eye before. Pickering said that was the main reason why Seqalu and Grand Chief Tauketok signed the peace treaty. Le Gendre mentioned none of that in his own report, and since the TV Le Gendre isn’t going to lose an eye soon, we are probably not going to get that scene in the series.

Pickering is the second from the left, wearing a full Scottish outfit, complete with a kilt and may be even a sporran? There’s another photo of Pickering when he was still in Taiwan.

The British merchant John Dodd is in the photo as well. He is the second one from the first, sitting on the handle of a litter. Dodd is famous for introducing tea from Fujian to Taiwan.

Dr. Patrick Manson played by @Toe_Save actually would have only been 23 years old when the Rover incident happened. See his photo below. The head in front of Dr. Manson was British Consul Thomas Adkins. He also arrived in Taiwan pretty much at the same time Le Gendre did, in the series it would seem like he has been in Taiwan for a long time.

Another French explorer by the name of Joseph Bernard was probably in this expedition as well.

This photo was taken during Le Gendre’s third meeting with Grand Chief Tauketok.

In many ways, I think Le Gendre turned and offered his services to the Japanese because he thought it was a way to prevent Taiwanese aboriginals, including the Pingpu tribes people, from being subjugated. The Japanese promised those who helped them that they would be granted greater autonomy. However, Japanese under international pressure agreed to a deal with the Qing, and left the area, leaving all those who cooperated with them in fear of Qing retaliation, which sped up the process of sinicization of Kengting.

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http://www.knottedwillow.com/Botefuhr%20Family.html

There is a website saying that Mrs. Mercy Beerman Hunt a relative of their family.

image

I t is also interesting to note the name of Formosa is prevalent in the area. JHL Botefuhr’s sister-in-law (and cousin) Mercy Beerman Hunt was killed on a ship named Rover, at the Island of Formosa in 1867. JHL Botefuhr was married twice, and I am descended from the second marriage. JHL Botefuhr was of German descent and he towered over my great- great grandmother Fannie Speridone Carpenter who was descended from the Menorcans that were brought to this county and settled the New Smyrna Colony and sought refuge in St. Augustine.

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A few more historical discrepancies:

  1. According to Le Gendre’s own report, there should be another British person, James Horn (in Le Gendre’s report, he wrote it as Holmes, so he apparently misheard his name) who accompanied them to Lang-kiau.

  2. @Rocket mentioned to me that Pickering was wielding a Winchester lever-action repeating rifles, first of which was produced in 1866, the same year of the Rover incident. So it is very unlikely that Pickering and others could get their hands on one so soon. Although it could also be a Henry repeating rifle, also a level action repeating rifle, which was first produced in 1860, giving enough time for the rifles to make their way to Formosa. In Le Grenda’s report, General Lau’s (Liu Ming-deng 劉明燈) 500 private Hunan Braves had Lee–Enfield bolt action rifles.

  3. Also in episode 3, when Pickering was puking next to the well in the courtyard, there was a pot of white and red orchid. Those are hybrid orchids and won’t be around for another 100 years. Orchids native in Taiwan are all white (Phal. amabilis var. Formosa), and native to Langkiau.

  4. Although Mrs. Hunt was killed, when warriors of the Kulaliuc village came to take her head, they realized it’s a woman, and left her head alone. In the series she lost her head anyway. This part is in the trailer, so I don’t think we need a spoiler tag. In real life, Mrs. Hunt’s relatives sent a man by the name of James Horn to obtain her body and send it back to America. Horn asked Pickering for assistance and the two finally located the remains of the crew in a Seqalu village called Shurindan, recorded by Pickering as Ling-nuan, just next to the Kulaliuc village, which was responsible for massacring the Rover crew. The Shurindans claim they are a peaceful village and often try to rescue sailors from the Kulaliucs. After the Rover crew were killed by the Kulaliucs, people from Shurindan buried the bodies. Pickering was able to convince the Shurindans to help move the bodies to a village called Tuā-siù-pâng (大繡房, recorded as Toa-siu-pong) for 100 silver coins.

Despite these two Seqalu villages being on opposite sides of the same hill, Kulaliucs was ruled by the Grand Chief and belongs to the state of Ciljasuaq, while Shurindan was a state on its own, ruled by the Forth Chief.

James Horn had more adventures with Pickering in Lang-kiau, rescuing a bunch of people from Bashee (probably islands from the Bashi Channel, maybe the Batan islands) from Seqalu, who Pickering and Horn communicated with in Spanish. Horn fell in love with the Plains Aboriginal peoples, and chose to stay in Taiwan, and help start a colony of Kavalan in Hualien with assistance from a German merchant, James Milisch. He seemed to have this goal of creating a safe haven for the oppressed Plains Aboriginals who lost their land. Unfortunately, when he accompanied a bunch of Plains Aboriginals from the Northcoast to his colony, the ship wrecked and Horn drowned.

Oh, and Pickering’s memoir is free online:

Events related to the Rover incident starts at digital page 240 (actual page 179).

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I’ve just been schooled. The gun toting space raccoon knows what he is talking about.

The 1860 Henry doesn’t have a breech loading port, so that could only be a 1866 Winchester.

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Who plays Dr Patrick Manson in the tv series Seqalu: Formosa 1867? He seems very familiar, as if I have met him somewhere. But my GoogleFu shows up nothing, not even IMDB cast…

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Is it Manson or Mason? This seems to say it’s one Stewart Glen!

Have you met him? If he should happen to be a Forumosan by any chance (past or present!) don’t forget not to out him :slight_smile:

EDIT: I forgot he had done it himself :slight_smile:

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Definitely Manson. Although, the knighted doctor is Scottish. In the series he sounded very American.

Also, Mr. Glen’s first ever headshot looks a lot like Dr. Manson in 1987.

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Sadly, unlike the good doctor in the series, the real Dr. Manson didn’t stay as striking when he got older. He did become a world famous parasitologist, taught SYS in Hong Kong though, and dubbed “Father of Tropical Medicine”.

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I just finished watching the first episode on Netflix. It definitely kept my interest. I haven’t read this thread because of the spoiler alert.

I don’t really know this history besides the blurb I read on Wikipedia so I have to admit that I got confused by all of the various factions. This is typical for me when I watch a new series so hopefully I’ll have the various groups’ storylines straightened out by the end of the next episode.

EDIT: I just read that the actor who plays one of the tribe’s leaders (Tikitok?) recently died at only 42 years of age. He’s actually the character I liked the most in the first episode.

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Actual maps submitted to the US government by Le Gendre. He had mistaken 楓港 Hongkang for 東港 Tongkang.

Seqalu was a culturally Paiwan tribal alliances ruled by Pinuyumayan nobles. The Pinuyumayan nobles once lived in a place they called Qaro, which is present day Zhiben in Taidong. They were driven out by other Pinuyumayan tribes, and migrated into Paiwan territory. After defeating the local Paiwan people, the nobles maintained power but integrated into Paiwan culture. I’m thinking Seqalu came from Si-Qaro, which means originated from Qaro.

Seqalu controlled pretty much everything south of today’s Fengkang river, and covered all of Kenting. It was ruled by 4 major noble houses. The great house Garuljigulj, the second house Mavaliw, the third house Cjligul, and the forth house Ruvaniyaw. Each house ruled over a state, which was formed by a collection of villages. The leadership seems to be transferred between these major houses since the time of the Dutch. The intra-alliance rivalry and politics are a major part of the series.

The name for the general region, Long-kiâu is somethings read as Lang-kiâu in the series by the actors. The Dutch first recorded the areas as Lonc-kjauw, so I think the first pronunciation should be the correct one. Many sources say it means orchids in the Paiwan language, which I couldn’t find any actual proof of. The closest I could find that that orchid is rang and range in Atayal and Rukai languages. So… maybe there is some truth to it?

The Dutch also recorded the region as Dalaswack or Tolasuacq, which are references to Ciljasuaq, the capital village of Seqalu. The region contains two major Paiwan alliances. The one sourth of the Fengkang river is Seqaru, and one north of Fengkang river is the Tjakuvukuvulj, also known as Takabolder or Tocobocobul by the Dutch. It was a part of the Dutch’s 11 Heerschappye of Formosa. Although the Tjakuvukuvulj and Seqalu were both broadly speaking Paiwan, their relations were often hostile.

I’m updating this map and table as we go.

English Paiwan Taigi Hanji Comment
Seqalu Seqalu Su-khah-lô 斯卡羅
Tokitok Cuqicuq Garuljigulj Tok-kí-tok 卓杞篤 Also Tauketok
Tuiasak Ciljasuaq Tu-lâ-sok 豬朥束 Capital of Seqalu
Kualut Kulaliuc Ku-á-lu̍t 龜仔甪 Part of Ciljasuaq
Sabaree Shyamari Siā-bâ-lí 射麻里 Base of 2nd house
Ba-ah-huang Savaruk Bâ-á 貓仔 Base of 3rd house
Lingnuang Shurindan Lîng-luân 龍鑾 Base of 4th house
Liang-kiau Veljangaljangaw Long-kiâu 瑯嶠
Chasiang Kabeyawan Tshâ-siânn 柴城 Holo, 車城
Sialiau Siā-liâu 射寮 Holo-Makatao
Poliak Pó-la̍t 保力 Hakka
Thóng-niá-poo 統領埔
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That’s how I felt, but I had it down pretty straight by the end of E1. I most liked the Hakka father character who dies at the end of E1.

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Awesome detail!

Were these rival noble houses matrilineal? I was taught that Indigenous peoples in the south were broadly speaking matrilineal as opposed to the pan-Atayalic folks in the north who were and are not.

Guy