An Emmy Award-winning TV program filmed in Tainan is expected to capture the new charm of the old city from a US perspective.
The travel series Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi, from US public broadcaster Public Broadcasting Service, has 10 episodes per season.
It has won the Emmy Award four times.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan Bureau of Tourism
Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi boasts an average audience of more than 2 million per episode from the US and Canada. It airs on multiple streaming TV platforms, such as Amazon Prime, Tubi and in-flight entertainment systems, the Tainan Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
The show was filmed at notable tourist sites in Tainan, including Anping Old Fort (安平古堡), Anping Matsu Temple (安平天后宮) and Ten Drum Culture Village (十鼓文創園區), to showcase the richness of local history and cultures, it said.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) had visited the film crew and given them Taiwanese culinary delights, such as pineapple cakes, pomeloes, coffee and dried mango from Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井), to show hospitality.
The filming was a great opportunity to bring Tainan to the world as well as a cultural exchange, he said.
Program host Mickela Mallozzi and her team probed the city’s cultural heritage with passion and creativity, showing the unique charm of Tainan’s traditional activities, such as drum performances, yi-ko, or Taiwanese festival floats, and parade formations, Huang said.
Additionally, Tourism Bureau Director-General Lin Kuo-hua (林國華) yesterday said the show demonstrated the exuberance of traditional culture in Tainan.
The filming team recorded the process of crafting drumming instruments at a village and the gourmet food served on Bao’an Road, while the host experienced the face painting of godly generals and learned their performance strides, he said.
The city government expects the collaboration to raise Tainan’s international visibility and spur more travelers from the US and the rest of the world to make the city one of their top destinations, Lin said.
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