Taiwan–Day 6 (Sunday): World Confucius Youth Camp, Day Two

Some of the students of the camp

Today the camp once again began early–all participants reconvened at the Temple at 8:30 AM. The first activity of the morning was composed of an introduction to Chinese calligraphy and a workshop of producing our own calligraphic pieces. The "art of beautiful writing" ("calligraphy" > Gr. kallos ["beauty"] + grapho ["write"; cf. telegraph and biography]) is a Chinese tradition that is held in great reverence. Its origins lie at the beginning of Chinese civilization. The complex visual nature of Chinese characters, each of which represents a word or concept rather than a sound, has perhaps led to the high development of the art. Although the pieces I produced today will not command respect any time soon–or ever, for that matter–it was very enjoyable to attempt to imitate a few characters with a smooth brush and silky, black ink.

With our own Chinese puppets!

A trip to a museum of Asian Puppet Theater took up the second half of the morning. This art form too has a long tradition in Chinese nations and other East and South Asian cultures. The short performance of the Taiwanese variant was entertaining; it involved expertly manipulated 8"-tall puppets performing such delicate actions as combing hair, sword fighting, and even smoking a pipe (the miniature pipe blew real smoke!). The rest of the museum explained the history of Chinese puppet theater, and also introduced a few puppet forms that were entirely new to me. Of these, the most intriguing were shadow puppets, which, by means of a light source behind them, cast their colorful forms onto a translucent screen, and water puppets, a thousand-year-old form that is the cultural treasure of Vietnam, in which the puppets and their boats are controlled by means of an unseen, underwater rod. At the end, we received our own Chinese puppets to take home with us!

After a lunch of "local specialties," we were led on a tour of the Dadaocheng neighborhood, where we visited the Temple of the Xiahai City God, the patron god (in the traditional Chinese mythology) of Taipei (whose name comes from the mainland Chinese city from which he migrated). Like patron gods in pagan mythologies, and also like many patron saints in Christianity, this city god is worshipped so that he might protect Taipei and aid its citizens in their livelihood. Today this temple is a sight of pilgrimage for that god's sake, but also for the sake of Yue Lao ("the old man in the moon") or the Matchmaker God, whose effigy has been housed in the temple since 1971. Many single Taiwanese men and women, who, having focused for years on achieving academic and professional success, have not concentrated on starting a family, come here to pray that this Chinese Cupid might match them with a spouse. In just the few minutes we were here, I noticed several young, professional women and a few young men come in and bow before the god with incense sticks in their hand. Newly wed couples can also be seen returning to the temple to thank the god for answering their prayers.

The Longshan Temple, located in the old neighborhood of Mengjia, is a famous Chinese Buddhist temple, which also includes a Taoist shrine. It was constructed c. 1738 by Chinese settlers from Fujian Province, who obtained for it a replica of the statue of Buddha housed in their hometown. The temple seen today, has been renovated a few times since the original construction; it remains a finely decorated, beautiful classical structure.

The Red House

After dinner, we made our last trip of the camp–the Red House Theater in the busy Ximending shopping district. The Red House, built in 1908 by the Japanese as a market house for the upper-class Japanese living in Taipei during the Occupation Period, and then converted into a theater in the 1940s. It has two parts: an octagonal entrance building, Western style, and a cruciform brick house behind. Inside this building we had the final ceremony of the camp, and the presentation of bamboo certificates written in Chinese with our names inscribed. Each participant also said a few words to the group; I thanked both funders, staff, and participants for an exciting, enjoyable, and educative experience.