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DEAFLYMPICS TAIPEI 2009: Athletes to enjoy Taiwan’s cuisine

“We want to dedicate the feast to the athletes, introducing such traditional culture and Taiwanese people’s passion for foreign friends and make them remember Taiwan forever.” — Stan Lai, ceremony artistic director

Deaflympics athletes will be treated to a huge outdoor banquet featuring Taiwanese cuisine such as steamed dumplings and beef noodles at the closing ceremony on Tuesday, the Deaflympics Organizing Committee said yesterday.

The outdoor banquet, a cultural tradition in Taiwan in which chefs cook at an outdoor venue, will be the theme for the closing ceremony, Emile Sheng (盛治仁), president of the committee, said at Taipei City Hall.

Local delicacies that appeared in the opening ceremony, including minced pork rice, beef noodle soup, mango shaved ice and steamed dumplings, will be ­presented at the 300-table outdoor banquet, he said.

The artistic director of the opening and closing ceremony, Performance Workshop founder Stan Lai (賴聲川), said it would be the first time a banquet was held at a sports event’s closing ceremony, and hopefully the creativity would introduce the “outdoor banquet” culture to the athletes and to the world.

“We want to dedicate the feast to the athletes, to introduce this traditional culture and the Taiwanese people’s passion for foreign friends and to make them remember Taiwan forever,” Lai said.

U-Theatre, which kicked off the opening ceremony with a drumming performance, will also perform at the closing ceremony, along with other famous groups, including Taiwanese opera group Ming Hua Yuan and the Hung Sheng Lion Dance Theatre, Lai said.

Sheng said the scale of the performance for the closing ceremony would not be as grand as the opening ceremony because the men’s soccer final will be begin at the Taipei Stadium at 2pm, a few hours before the closing ceremony.

It is a Deaflympics tradition to hold the men’s soccer final on the final day of the games, and so it left Lai and his team with almost no time to set up the stage for a grand finale, Sheng said.

Lai said it took 40 hours for his team to set up the stage for the opening ceremony, and so he decided to hold an outdoor banquet as a creative alternative for the closing ceremony.

Taking the audience into consideration, Sheng said the committee would prepare lunch boxes for the spectators while they watch the athletes enjoy their feast.
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