Shunxian Temple (順賢宮) is luxurious. Massive, exquisitely ornamented, in pristine condition and yet varnished by the passing of time. General manager Huang Wen-jeng (黃文正) points to a ceiling in a little anteroom: a splendid painting of a tiger stares at us from above. Wherever you walk, his eyes seem riveted on you.
“When you pray or when you tribute money, he is still there, looking at you,” he says.
But the tiger isn’t threatening — indeed, it’s there to protect locals. Not that they may need it because Neimen District (內門) in Kaohsiung has a martial tradition dating back centuries.
Photo: Julien Oeuillet
On April 5, Shunxian Temple hosted the Neimen Songjiang Battle Ritual, a yearly competition that combines choreographed martial arts and traditional theater.
MARTIAL TRADITION
The Songjiang Battle Ritual is a deeply Taiwanese tradition and stems from the region’s history of irredentism and local resistance to outside rule.
Photo: Julien Oeuillet
Militias were first formed by speakers of Hokkien (commonly known as Taiwanese) villagers of the Neimen area to defend themselves against raids by the indigenous population and Han Chinese pouring in from Tainan, then the seat of the Qing Empire’s attempts at subjugating the island.
Later on, the Neimen warriors allied with one of the indigenous communities to push back on Qing forces. The ritual was thus born at the moment when the island grew an identity away from the common root of the ancient Sinosphere.
Despite its ages-old character, the Songjiang Battle Ritual is a celebration of juvenile passion, dedication and determination.
Photo: Julien Oeuillet
Each troop numbers around two dozen, mostly in their early twenties, telling a story through simulated fighting, with weapons or bare limbs.
Live and recorded music is constantly booming, while flag-bearers wave their colors, sometimes carrying gigantic banners. Not a word is uttered: their choreographed fights, screams, movements and props do the job.
HONORS
Photo: Julien Oeuillet
This year’s winning team, Fengwu Xinchuan-Xiluo Fengshan Pavilion (鳳武薪傳西螺鳳山館), used modern imagery to tell the story of folk hero Liao Tian-ding (廖添丁), a sort of Taiwanese Robin Hood celebrated for his resistance to Japanese rulers in the early 1900s.
For their efforts, the troupe, received honors from local officials, including Ho Kuo-jao (何國昭) a 101-year-old kung-fu master.
After the competition ends, the food stalls close up, and performers and the audience disperse. Inside the temple, a few late pilgrims come to pray to Matsu and the deity of martial artists, Guan Yu, all while the tiger continues to cast its protective gaze.
Photo: Julien Oeuillet
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
RSS