Amis DJ Dungi Sapor Tours UK with Fusion of Indigenous Chants, Electronic Beats, and Dance

LONDON, June 18 (CNA) — Taiwanese Amis artist, DJ, and music producer Dungi Sapor is set to embark on a UK tour starting June 19, with scheduled performances in Sheffield, Bristol, and London. Her shows integrate traditional Amis chants and melodies with experimental electronic soundscapes and dance, accompanied by an academic seminar at a university campus.

Produced by Kakilang, a London-based contemporary arts organization focusing on East and Southeast Asian creators, and Wildtune, a Bristol-based non-profit music organization, the tour is supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK.

The tour begins on June 19 in Sheffield at the Migration Matters Festival. Subsequent performances are scheduled in Bristol on June 20 and London on June 24, with an additional seminar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London on June 23.

According to Kakilang, Dungi Sapor’s work aims to provide an immersive, cross-disciplinary soundscape. Her performances involve collaborations with Amis dancers, utilizing sound, music, and physical movement to weave together ancestral chants, collective tribal memories, and contemporary electronic culture.

Each tour stop will feature local DJs from various cultural backgrounds to explore themes of cross-cultural mobility. At SOAS, Dungi Sapor will engage in a discussion on sound, cultural memory, and historical archives with Vietnamese-British sound artist and curator Cường Minh Bá Phạm, known professionally as Phambinho.

The 11th annual Migration Matters Festival, running from June 19 to 27, will also host the Neo-Classical Chamber Ensemble from Taiwan. They are scheduled to perform their immersive documentary music theater piece, "The White Rose of Cijin: The 25 Story," on June 24.

The performance commemorates the 1973 ferry disaster in Cijin, Kaohsiung, where 25 young female factory workers drowned while commuting to an export processing zone. The piece utilizes multi-media elements to reinterpret the history and folklore surrounding the "Memorial of the 25 Young Ladies."

This marks the first time Taiwanese artists and ensembles have performed at the Migration Matters Festival.