This past weekend’s Tshing Shan Festival was touted as this winter’s headline event to boost Taipei’s local economy and tourism — but now it is under fire after scores of residents complained about noise from loudspeakers and firecrackers throughout the night.
Held by the Qingshan Temple (青山宮) in Wanhua District (萬華) from Friday through Sunday, the event is one of the city’s three biggest temple festivals. Although people have filed noise complaints in the past, this year’s festivities, expanded to mark the temple’s 165th anniversary, featured an unprecedented number of troupes and altars, greatly slowing down Sunday’s birthday procession for patron deity Qingshanwang (青山王).
It is not clear whether the event is to attain the same scale next year, but city officials are scrambling to ensure that it is kept under control. Yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) met with temple officials, his office announcing that it would ramp up regulations, control and enforcement next year and work closely with the temple during the preparations.
The temple has apologized, saying that it would improve the event next year to reach a balance between cultural beliefs and modern concerns. It has vowed to modify the altar arrangement and the event’s progression so that it affects a smaller area and concludes earlier. This is not just for the benefit of the residents, it is also crucial to the temple, as local support and tolerance are necessary to keep such traditions alive.
The city lists the temple’s Friday and Saturday night processions as intangible cultural heritage events, vital Wanhua traditions that need to be preserved. While the processions are believed to protect local residents from evil spirits and diseases, rituals particularly relevant amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they ironically aggravated residents, which must be dealt with.
A big part of the debate is what to do about the firecrackers — some say that they should be banned altogether, while others say that they should be restricted to certain locations and hours. Safety concerns are legitimate, as firecrackers might have caused a building fire on Monday morning — an investigation is pending. Regardless, firecrackers need to be strictly regulated and not set off wantonly.
Traditions can be changed to fit modern needs, but as important as they are, they should not be excuses for polluting the environment. The modern-day format of the Tshing Shan Festival — especially the scale of this weekend’s events — has already departed from that of the past, with its modern flair and surrounding cultural events aimed at attracting bigger crowds.
In the old days, the festival was a community affair for those who experienced it growing up, but Wanhua’s new residents have little emotional connection with it. While the temple does its part to address residents’ complaints, the residents can also try to appreciate the history and traditions of their community.
While the noise should not continue as late into the night next year, the festival itself is not going away, which means that clamoring and commotion is likely to go on during acceptable hours. Will people just see this as a yearly nuisance or will they try to understand the festival’s significance? Only then will it regain its original sense of community spirit and continue to benefit future generations.
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