A wooden building called Liuwu (柳屋) in Greater Tainan’s Jhongsi District (中西) has become a popular site for cosplay enthusiasts who like posing in costumes for pictures in traditional Japanese-style surroundings.
On weekends, small crowds of cosplay enthusiasts dressed as various Japanese manga characters can be seen posing for pictures in front of the Liuwu, or the Shihpamao Tea House, the name given it by its new operator, Yeh Tung-tai (葉東泰).
Cosplay, or costume play, is a type of performance art that originated in Japan in which participants wear costumes and accessories to portray a specific character, mostly from animations, caricatures or video games.
Photo: Meng Ching-tzu, Taipei Times
The city’s National Cheng Kung University has long been a famous gathering point for cosplay devotees in southern Taiwan, but it is gradually being overtaken by the Liuwu.
Yeh said that the Liuwu — a former dinning hall for the Japanese that was built around 1934 — was unlike other traditional Japanese-style structures whose wooden beams were normally left unpainted to preserve their original color and grain.
Brown paint was applied to the beams used to construct the Liuwu, Yeh said, mainly to help preserve the wood in Taiwan’s humid weather.
“To most Taiwanese, the Liuwu may appear to be no different from any other traditional Japanese building, but a Japanese could easily discern the subtle Taiwanese flavor incorporated in the building,” Yeh said.
While Tainan, a former capital of Taiwan, has a rich nostalgic atmosphere, it must be infused with an innovative spirit, rather than simply dwelling on the past, to keep pace with modern society, Yeh said.
In an effort to bring in innovations to his tea house, Yeh has launched a tea-tasting set featuring two pottery tea cups larger than ordinary ones. One is termed the “scent cup” (聞香杯), while the other is called the “sample teacup (品茗杯)” — affording customers a different experience of tea appreciation.
The scent cup, also known as the sniffle cup, is designed for tea enthusiasts to appreciate the aroma of infused tealeaves, while the sample teacup is used for drinking.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
RSS