Academia Sinica is organizing an international conference next month to discuss belief in the goddess Matsu and her connection with the Matsu Islands, officials with the Lienchiang County Government's Cultural Affairs Bureau said yesterday.
The officials said that Academia Sinica's Institute of Ethnology would invite 40 academics from Taiwan and abroad to participate in the conference on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 at the Matsu Folklore Culture Museum in Nangan (
Altogether, 15 papers will be presented at the conference on different aspects of the belief in the "Goddess of the Sea" and the historical relationship with the Matsu Islands.
Matsu was born in 960AD to a fisherman's family in China's Fujian Province during the Sung dynasty and was given the name Lin Mo-niang (
Legend has it she was a genius with supernatural powers, including the ability to calm storms at sea. The numerous miracles ascribed to her include rescuing sailors in distress and curing the sick with her vast knowledge of Chinese medicine.
One day, at the age of 28, she told her parents it was time for her to leave them. After reaching the top of a mountain near her home, she was encircled by clouds and carried into the heavens in a golden glow amid enchanting celestial music.
She was deified and referred to as Matsu. Emperors in the Ming and Ching dynasties referred to her as the "Heavenly Empress."
Residents on the Matsu Islands, however, have a different version of the story. They believe that Lin Mo-niang drowned while trying to rescue her father from a storm at sea, and that her body was washed ashore on the island of Nangan.
A temple named the Palace of the Heavenly Empress was built on Nangan. The temple is said to contain her sarcophagus.
The local people also named the archipelago Matsu in memory of the goddess, but the first character in the name was later changed to give it a different tone so as to make it sound more masculine.
Today, Matsu has become the most widely worshipped deity in Taiwan, with temples dedicated to her seen in almost every township and city.
Academia Sinica is the nation's most prominent academic institution, with more than 1,000 full-time research fellows undertaking in-depth academic research on various subjects.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS