Amis Art Café: Reclaiming the Matrilineal Culture Where Mother Is Queen

"For the Amis, mother is the important queen of every home." Shu-Mai Ka-Chao, manager of the Tribal Queen Art Café, brews pomelo flower tea from Hualien's Wuhe, with plants her mother brought back from the family orchard that morning placed nearby. Walking up the stairs to the rooftop, the view opens onto the emerald Coastal Mountain Range and lush green rice paddies.

Shu-Mai, once a dancer and now the café manager, drew the name Tribal Queen from her mother: "The Amis were traditionally a matrilineal society, and every mother held a very high status at home." Two years ago, Shu-Mai and her brother Yosifu Kacaw, a well-known Amis artist based in the UK, returned home together to convert the family home into a café and homestay. "Kacaw is our father's name. Shu-Mai Kacaw means: Shu-Mai, child of Kacaw. We are the Sun family."

From Mom's Grocery Store to an Art-Style Café

Arriving in Hualien and heading south along Route 193, past the Ruisui Bridge at the border of Ruisui and Yuli, you take in the Xiuguluan River, the Chunri Green Tunnel and the rice paddies on both sides. Just past Chunri Elementary School, after the mobile post office that stops on schedule every day has just pulled away, a huge sign reading "Tribal Queen" comes into view, its vivid orange-yellow running brightly from the sign all the way through the interior.

The bright yellow inside the café was her brother Yosifu's idea. Shu-Mai explains that warm yellow is the color of ripe rice ears, and in spring the view is nothing but endless rice paddies. "A lot of people here grow rice; watching the rice grow since childhood just feels good." She and her brother both believe that since they came home to open a shop, everything from the exterior and furnishings to the ingredients should be "as local as possible."

From the first floor to the third, the stairwell and balcony are decorated with Yosifu's paintings and other artworks, and you can feel abundant life and passion in the paintings. "Life in the tribe is my brother's source of inspiration." Shu-Mai explains that Yosifu makes extensive use of the red, black and white palette common among the Amis, painting Amis family members and tribal people in a Western painting style, and the women's faces in his works are modeled on Shu-Mai herself.

Returning to a hometown of fish-lovers and wild-vegetable eaters, reliving a carefree life of days gone by

The Tribal Queen Art Café is located in the Matadim tribe of Yuli, Hualien. Shu-Mai explains that Matadim is a transliteration, originally meaning a kind of poisonous vine. "The Amis don't just love wild vegetables; when they see fish they turn into felines!" She explains that their ancestors would use the sap of this poisonous vine to temporarily stun the fish in the stream, then catch the big ones to eat and leave the small ones in the stream.

Shu-Mai lived in the Matadim tribe as a child. She left home at fifteen and went north, living in Taipei for 25 years, where she gave birth to her daughter Nikar. So that Nikar could also grow up carefree, and as her parents were getting older, Shu-Mai decided to return to Hualien, and after discussing it with her family converted the family home into the Tribal Queen Art Café.

The inspiration for the café's name "Tribal Queen" came from her mother: "The Amis were traditionally a matrilineal society, and every mother held a very high status at home. In the old days, men 'married into' the woman's family."

A Princess Before Marriage, Every Amis Mother Is a Queen of the Tribe

Shu-Mai's maternal grandfather was once the chief of the Matadim tribe, serving for more than forty years, and had 6 sons and 6 daughters. Shu-Mai's mother was the eleventh child. "Mom grew up as a carefree princess. Now that she's old she forgets many things, but she still remembers she's a princess!" As Shu-Mai speaks, her mother happens to return from the orchard with a plant, excitedly handing it to her.

Shu-Mai takes the plant from her mother's hands and bustles about finding a glass bottle for water and arranging the flowers. "Mom and Dad are getting older; now they go every day to the family orchard up in the hills to tend the fruit and vegetables, and they bring back bananas, shell ginger leaves and other plants to the café." She adds quietly: "But she always brings back so much, and I have to figure out how to arrange it beautifully in the café. When Mom hears customers praise what she's grown, she's overjoyed."

From the exterior and furnishings to the ingredients, everything should be "as local as possible"

The café offers simple light meals, fair-trade coffee and pomelo flower tea from Hualien's Wuhe, while the pastries are handmade by Shu-Mai. On the day of the visit, her purple sweet potato pie had just come out of the mold. "This was grown by people in the tribe. The color makes it look a lot like a blueberry pie, doesn't it!" Shu-Mai says with a smile. The pie, which retains a little sweet potato fiber, is dense and smooth with a faint sweet potato flavor.

Outside the plant-filled café entrance is a wooden platform. "This is our vegetable-selling area!" Shu-Mai says that plenty of people nearby grow vegetables, and the whole family thought that since they had opened a café, they could also provide a sales point for neighbors and tribal members. She picks up a tomato from a bamboo basket on the table. "The one who most often comes to drop off vegetables is an elder woman from the tribe. This is what she grew; we affectionately call them 'tire tomatoes.'"

Besides the vegetables outside, the café also sells rice naturally cultivated by tribal members. The café's customers are mainly tourists from other counties and cities. Asked how the vegetable sales go, Shu-Mai says with a smile: "There are more customers on weekends, so more people buy them to take home. Whatever isn't sold on ordinary days, we just cook and eat ourselves!" She reveals that next they plan to go up the hill to grow vegetables with her parents, using some of the family's fruit and vegetables in the café.