Samingad ( Puyuma: Samingad Purepurepuan ; ;

zhuyin Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...

:ㄐㄧˋ ㄒㄧㄠˇㄐㄩㄣ; born 2 October 1977) is an aboriginal

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

pop singer and songwriter. She is an ethnic Puyuma. In her native Puyuma language Samingad means "Unique or Without equal". She was born 2 October 1977 in a Puyuma Township in

Taitung County Taitung County (; Mandarin pinyin: ''Táidōng Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tâi-tang-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Thòi-tûng-yen''; Paiwan: ''Valangaw'';lit:Eastern part of Taiwan) is the third largest county in Taiwan, located primarily on the island' ...

, to a father of Bunun descent and a mother of Puyuma descent. Her uncle is Purdur, the winner of the Best Mandarin Male Singer of the

11th Golden Melody Awards The 11th Golden Melody Awards ceremony was held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan, on 28 April 2000. Aboriginal music featured prominently in this award ceremony. References External links 11th Golden Melody Awa ...

. Her younger sister, Jia Jia, is also a singer. Samingad was discovered while singing in a restaurant, where she worked as a waitress. Her first album "Voice of Puyuma" was released with Magic Stone Records and received a

Golden Melody Award The Golden Melody Awards (), commonly abbreviated as GMA, is an honor awarded by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Formosan-languages popular and traditional music in ...

for "Best New Artist" 1999. In 2001 she received a Golden Melody Award for "Best Dialect (Non-Mandarin Language) Female Vocalist" for her second album "Wild Fire, Spring Wind". Her music draws much of its inspiration from the Christian

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

s, as well as from tales of the tribe's former agricultural and hunting lifestyle, and from the complex emotions triggered by Puyuma's struggles in Taiwan's contemporary society.

References

1977 births Taiwanese Hokkien pop singers People from Taitung County Living people Puyuma people Bunun people 21st-century Taiwanese singers 21st-century Taiwanese women singers {{Taiwan-singer-stub