Tianhou (“Empress of Heaven”) temples, dedicated to the goddess Mazu, are centers for all kinds of traditional craftsmanship. In this article we visit three masters of temple crafts: carpenter Liu Shengren; Guo Chunfu, a maker of headgear for deities’ statues; and embroideress Zhang Lijuan. By looking at their decades of consummate work, we can appreciate their professionalism and admire the beauty of Taiwanese crafts.
Outstanding innovations in biomedical engineering derive from the collective efforts of all scientists. Allen Y. Wang, the inventor and technical lead for SURGICEL® Powder Absorbable Hemostat at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, comes from Taiwan. This product that is able to rapidly stop bleeding is today on the market in over 40 countries worldwide and has benefited millions of patients.
For their annual Mazu celebrations, many temples in Taiwan put their Mazu deities on palanquins and embark on pilgrimages through the streets, bringing the goddess closer to the people. A single tour can attract crowds of more than 10,000 believers. Among these events, the pilgrimages from the Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung’s Dajia District and the Gongtian Temple at Baishatun in Miaoli’s Tongxiao Township attract the most attention.
In April, fog comes and goes around the five main islands of Matsu, and sea mists often force the closure of the airport or cause takeoffs and landings to be delayed. But this is precisely the time of year when many bird lovers choose to visit Matsu. Their goal is to see a fowl that has come to be called “a bird of myth and legend”: the Chinese crested tern.
Some recent popular television series have drawn on history for their plots, including Seqalu: Formosa 1867 and Gold Leaf. If you found these stories interesting, you are sure to find Keelung as portrayed by José Eugenio Borao Mateo equally fascinating. That is because his research is not simply an exploration of the past, but also tells the story of the amazing reunion in Taiwan of “a new immigrant of Spanish ancestry” and “Spaniards from history” after a hiatus of more than 300 years.
The Taiwan Film Festival UK & Nordic (TFF) is entering its fourth year. Launched in London in 2019, it seeks to move to a different Nordic country every year. Though the plan has been disrupted by Covid-19, this year the festival is on track to be held in Norway, where it will continue to introduce European audiences to Taiwan through film.
The triennial Wangye Welcoming Ceremony in Pingtung’s Donggang Township has been attracting large numbers of domestic and foreign tourists in recent years. Yet way back in the 1980s, before Wangye worship in Taiwan had received much scholarly attention, a young American academic named Paul Katz began to conduct in-depth research into the history of Wangye ceremonies in Pingtung. He pioneered research in the field.
Scientists hope that in their research careers they will make a “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery that can change the world. Dr. Hsing Yue-ie, a distinguished research fellow in the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology at the Academia Sinica, had just such a standout experience in her more than 50 years of agricultural research when she heard the scientific name of a Taiwanese cereal crop.
Since the Age of Discovery, Taiwan’s unique geographic position within East Asia has attracted many Westerners to its shores, including missionaries charged with spreading the gospel.
During the 20th century these missionaries introduced modern architectural forms popular in the West into Taiwan, while adapting them to local conditions and available building materials, resulting in the construction of many churches that differ greatly from those in predominantly Christian countries.
The Internet is rife with misinformation in the form of text, videos, and images. Indeed, falsehoods are far more abundant than truth. In the past, fact checkers were on their own, and just used their own common sense to categorize suspect items and decide which to look into first.
