The Opinion page has published several articles and editorials over the past few weeks addressing Taiwan’s efforts to leverage unique or strong aspects of its culture to increase international awareness of the nation.
These have included submissions by foreign journalists and overseas students, highlighting how bubble milk tea, Guinness World Record attempts, the entertainment sectors, impressive scenery, world-class cuisine and important contributions to the high-tech supply chain can enhance Taiwan’s recognition overseas and therefore its soft power.
That entails competing for attention in already crowded sectors. Other nations, after all, offer popular entertainment exports, beautiful scenic spots and great food.
China’s Mandarin-language cultural exports and wealth of impressive sights to draw in visitors make it even more difficult for Taiwan to differentiate itself.
One underused resource that Taiwan has that few other countries do, which it could say differentiates itself from China, is its vibrant folk religion temple festival culture.
Unfortunately, leveraging these presents not only challenges, but also a fundamental contradiction.
Several major temple festivals could be considered, including at Nankunshen Daitian Temple (南鯤鯓代天府) in Tainan, held annually, and the Wang Ye boat burning ceremony, held once every three years in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港).
Perhaps the most impressive, attracting the largest number of people, are the Matsu (媽祖) pilgrimages that occur this time of year.
The Baishatun Matsu Pilgrimage this year starts on May 1 at Gongtian Temple (拱天宮) in Miaoli County and ends back at the temple on May 11, after visiting Chaotian Temple (朝天宮) in Yunlin County’s Beigang Township (北港).
Chaotian Temple also hosts the Beigang Matsu Pilgrimage on Wednesday and Thursday next week. The Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage departed from Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲) late on Saturday last week.
All three have their own characteristics: Dajia has scale and Baishatun is unique in that the path is negotiated en route. Both are grueling for pilgrims who stay from start to finish. Beigang is a smaller, briefer affair that has its own advantages in intimacy and convenience.
The big draw of attending the festivals is that, even though they can involve a large commitment of time, energy and logistics, they offer a truly authentic experience; they are not stage-managed by the government or the tourist industry, they are a genuine expression of traditional culture and folk religion with not only Taiwanese, but also distinctly Chinese elements that cannot be found anywhere in China.
The challenge is that the festivals are very much geared toward Taiwanese, and much of the information is available online in Mandarin only. In addition, the dates change every year: Dajia and Baishatun decide the dates for each occasion. Beigang has set dates, but they are according to the lunar calendar, so the actual dates in the Western calendar differ from one year to the next.
Attendance at the longer Dajia and Baishatun festivals offers the chance to experience the warmth of Taiwanese united in devotion to Matsu and to the completion of a shared goal after more than a week of walking; attendance at the Beigang festival affords an immersive look into what temple festivals would have looked, sounded, smelled and felt like decades, even centuries ago, and with few other tourists to alter or dilute the experience.
Therein lies the contradiction. The overriding sense of tradition and history, of the authentic and immersive experience, would be quickly obliterated by a large influx of tourists. The question is, how can organizers preserve the purity of the element that gives the festivals their most attractive feature?
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The Opinion page has published several articles and editorials over the past few weeks addressing Taiwan’s efforts to leverage unique or strong aspects of its culture to increase international awareness of the nation. These have included submissions by foreign journalists and overseas students, highlighting how bubble milk tea, Guinness World Record attempts, the entertainment sectors, impressive scenery, world-class cuisine and important contributions to the high-tech supply chain can enhance Taiwan’s recognition overseas and therefore its soft power. That entails competing for attention in already crowded sectors. Other nations, after all, offer popular entertainment exports, beautiful scenic spots and great food.
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