At a time when the gap between rich and poor is growing, housing is increasingly out of reach for the middle class, and the government seems to favor large corporations, it’s no surprise that the story of “Taiwan’s Robin Hood” (台灣羅賓漢) still resonates.
Xia Hai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟), located in Dadaocheng’s (大稻埕) historical Dihua Street (迪化街), will hold events on Monday to pay homage to Liao Tien-ding (廖添丁), a celebrated outlaw active in Taiwan over a century ago who was the bane of Japanese authorities and wealthy families that benefited from the colonial government’s largesse.
A prayer ritual will also be held at 10am on Sunday at Hanmin Temple (漢民祠) in Bali District (八里), New Taipei City. The temple was built in Liao’s honor.
Photo courtesy of Xia Hai City God Temple
Xia Hai temple spokesperson Titan Wu (吳孟寰) said Liao’s exploits, which include killing a police informer in Keelung (基隆), robbing tea merchants in Shilin (士林) and stealing guns and ammo from a police station in Dadaocheng, have led many to dub him “Taiwan’s Robin Hood” because he stood up to the colonial rulers and divided his booty among the poor.
Wu said that one legend relates how Liao stole money from a wealthy merchant in Dadaocheng and placed the loot under a table inside Xia Hai City God Temple.
“He then told temple officials to distribute the money to the poor people squatting outside the temple,” Wu said.
Photo courtesy of Xia Hai City God Temple
He added that many in contemporary society could learn something from Liao’s public-spiritedness.
“Today’s social order is extremely chaotic, and people have little sense of morality. [Liao] can serve as an example for people to follow,” Wu said.
Monday’s events kick off at 10am with a prayer ceremony to Liao at Xia Hai. At 12pm, the temple will distribute red turtle cakes (紅龜粿), a pastry made from glutinous rice and sugar that many believe can ward off evil and bring prosperity, Wu said.
Celebrations end with an opera by Yihsin Opera Troupe (一心歌仔戲劇團) relating the life and times of Liao. The free performance, located next to the temple at Yongle Square (永樂廣場), begins at 7pm.
Born in 1885 to a peasant family in what is now Greater Taichung, Liao is said to have mastered martial arts at a young age before embarking on his adventures throughout northern Taiwan. Police eventually caught up with him at his hideout on Bali’s Guanyin Mountain (觀音山) in November 1909, where he was gunned down in a shootout.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby