A lover of black cats is on a mission to capture the unique relationships between black cats and their owners across the nation and highlight the wonders of the cats, which are stigmatized by the belief that they are bearers of bad luck.
A self-described black cat storyteller, Lillian Lai (賴碧麗) said she has launched a campaign to share with the world the charm of black cats through pictures and interviews.
She hopes the project, which ultimately aims to turn 101 black cat stories into a book, would also encourage people to adopt black cats from animal shelters because they are often the least sought after compared with other cats.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of Lillian Lai
Lai has three black cats and a Facebook page called “Black Cat Action” that is followed by about 5,400 people, but her love affair with the felines only started two years ago when she adopted a black cat, after having raised other types of cat for 30 years.
Though black cats in Taiwan might not be seen as the harbingers of bad luck they are viewed as in some Western nations, they still have a more “negative” connotation.
In local folklore, for example, black cats with white feet are considered especially bad luck to the older generation because they remind them of people wearing black clothes and white socks during funeral services.
That is just one of the notions Lai hopes to dispel.
Her project grew out of a hobby she started in June last year when she began taking photographs of black cats she encountered in her daily life and sharing them online.
Over time, the project expanded and Lai asked her followers if they would be willing to be interviewed along with their cats.
Her request elicited a positive response online and the first interview she did was with illustrator Tanboo (碳布) and his two black cats in Pingtung County.
Tanboo, who has pictures of his cats, Ibu and Small Black, tattooed on his chest, said he and his cats are inseparable.
“If cats really have nine lives as they say, my cats have each already given me eight of them,” said Tanboo, who battled with anxiety disorder about a year ago.
During the recovery process, he adopted the two black cats, one via Black Cat Action.
“I have always wanted to keep black cats because somehow I feel I am just as misunderstood as they are,” Tanboo said, adding that his condition has improved considerably since the cats came into his life.
Tanboo said he would be providing illustrations and the design for Lai’s book, which she expects to finish in June.
To date, Lai has completed 30 interviews with owners of black cats.
“Every black cat and its owner has a special story and I want to tell those stories to the world,” she said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS