【Type】

《Urban harvest festival 》
The aborigines have come to city for a living, they become far from their hometown.  How to carry on and hold together traditional culture? Harvest festival seems to be a feasible option. The urban harvest festival is common in the Amis who lives in the city; it is only a day or two days long. The harvest festival preparation committee is founded at the meeting of the elected chiefs, and they will hold annual harvest festival. The committee members are occupies by the public figures in the hope of the success of the activity. 
The meaning of urban Amis harvest festival is to strengthen ethnic identification and increase affection communication through harvest festival. And it also helps to educate the children not to forget that they are Amis, and it also attracts the guests and spreads the culture.
 

《Union harvest festival》
United harvest festival exists in Amis of Hualien County; this is also the harvest festival that common people have recognized. United harvest festival is held by harvest festival committee rather than the former male age class. The committee will elect the tribe chief and meeting Chairman, which have replaced the traditional Presbyterianism. In the inauguration of ritual, they will run the national flag up, sing national anthem and the chief as well as the guest will give an address. The united harvest festival activity is two days or four days long, the activity content contains the singing and dancing and competitions, everyone could participate. Some tribes may hold a united festival with neighbor tribes to let the citizens to learn from each other, communicate with each other, increase information and experience.

《Original type》
The original type is the harvest festival that mostly happens at the south part of Taitung Changpin Village and some tribes of Hualien Fengbing Township. The original harvest festivals of these tribes are not all the same, they have their own characteristics.

《Comprehensive type》
Comprehensive type harvest festival is the combination of united one and original one, it is impacted by the united type of Hualien County, meanwhile it has reserved the original characteristics, so it is called comprehensive type, and the harvest festival at Jiali Village belongs to this type.

【Evolution】

"Singing and dancing to celebrate the good year" is the main impression of the public for Amis harvest festival. The current harvest festival has kept the traditional ceremonies, and it has also been evolved to a harvest festival combining politics, tourism and religion. While in everybody's heart, the happy harvest festival has implied the strict organization of Amis culture which contains respecting the old and the talented and passing on the traditions.   
In the past, in Jiali Village, i-li-sin is the same as the new year of the Han, the youth who work outward will ask for leave to go home to join i-li-sin. In the harvest festival days, all the villagers will sing and dance the united, solemn and passionate songs and dances passed down by the ancestors, we could see the tribal vitality through this festival, anyone who is absent will be amerced or be punished to drink millet wine.   
Life changes with the environment. The chief of Jiali Village said, “Now the tribe is impacted by Taiwan modern society, many youth have gone to the city for development, they even settle there and do not take traditional agriculture as the main source of finance, this outflow of population has decreased tribe population, so the original self-sufficient tribe life has gradually disappeared. Changes are not all bad, change is for better.”

    4nd unit