時間───2015年4月2日
受訪人───蕭瓊瑞（蕭）
參訪人───龔卓軍（龔）、陳冠彰、陳莘、羅文岑、林雅雯
地點───蕭瓊瑞住家
整理───陳冠彰、黃暉峻
從民間藝術重整臺灣美術架構
蕭───我很早就希望建立臺灣美術的架構。《臺南市志》從1976年編到1997年還沒編好，因為《藝術志》的部分一直沒有通過。後來市政府找我接手，我沿用已有資料半年內把它結案，結案後我一直覺得對不起藝術家，因為這裡面寫的人全部是「文人書畫」，以我的認知，臺南有那麼多的民間藝術卻少有著墨，完成之後我一直覺得這個不能交代。後來臺南市文化基金會問我可以做什麼事？我提了「臺南市藝術人才暨團體基本史料彙編」計畫，編了一個格式，如：作品風格、評價等，建立從鄭成功以來的資料庫。那是讓大家跟民間接觸的方法，這本書出來後，有一個好處是大家開始集中在裡頭的類型去研究，而門神彩繪也開始做類型整理。
從謝里法寫完《日據時代臺灣美術運動史》後，一直有一種假設，一定有一批人不參加臺、府展而卓然有成，這就是「民間系統」，另外這個系統裡頭，臺南跟嘉義這兩個城市其實是同一個城市（臺南州），臺南的是非常堅守傳統；而嘉義的林玉山他們則是突破 傳統。
研究後我發現臺南有兩大系統，分別是潘春源以及陳玉峰，他們在市場上是王不見王。我去說服他們接受訪談，並整理成一本《府城民間傳統畫師專輯》，把這兩個系統建立起來後，也發現這系統跟鹿港完全不一樣，是屬於「臺灣本土型」。
畫師早年從唐山來，畫完就回唐山。直到郭新林定居彰化後才傳承下來，郭新林系統畫的鼻子都很大，那是西北民族的造型，元代、明都是一樣，但是臺南的畫風很寫實，因為這些人畫炭精筆的寫實能力很好。例如《八仙大鬧東海》非常寫實、非常活潑，這幅畫在保安宮，廖武治董事長最早有保存想法，因此請來德國、日本的修復師。我們一直以為他們用固定的畫稿，但其實他們很有寫生的概念。
這幅畫以蚌殼精作為畫面的重心，打鬥的時候，畫面邊緣又回頭形成一種動態的視野，這是潘麗水的作品。這套系統我們不熟，但熟了之後會發覺非常有創意。另一幅潘麗水的壁畫山水在高雄哈瑪星代天宮，已經完全修復，文資局每次在做壁畫修復就以這一幅來做 範例。
潘麗水使用西畫的方法畫的壁畫非常多，他的侍女畫得修長漂亮，例如在高雄三鳳宮的門神，畫的這一些文官非常典雅，很有顧愷之的那一種飄逸。畫這麼文氣的臉不容易，尤其是三鳳宮的圖繪，我認為是他事業的高峰。高峰是因為那個年代給的錢夠多，一幅畫可以畫很久，後來價格被壓低以後，本來三十個紋路的，後來就變成二十個吧，就不能投注太多。
龔───在西方，中世紀的繪畫、雕刻，都會放在美術館，但是臺灣的這些傳統彩繪從來沒有在美術館見過。
蕭───像蔡草如，他說你要寫我參加省展那一些東西，這個傳統彩繪的部分被人家知道不好啦。他意思是他的身分會降低。因為那時代是不要當「畫工」，要當「畫家」。我去訪談時，他身體還很好，他一講到畫的東西還會站起來比劃。蔡草如畫的關帝聖君、觀音也是那年代最好的。後來，薛保瑕當館長時有典藏他的作品，他最好的作品目前都在國美館。
最早我和建築系合作，在臺南公會堂舉辦了潘麗水的特展，利用公會堂空間的高低，懸掛一些布幔，設計的像廟宇的空間，很有儀式性。後來又辦一個叫「峰如彝偉」的展，「峰」是陳玉峰，「如」是蔡草如，「彝」是陳壽彝，「偉」是蔡國偉，地點是在臺南市文化中心。我自己是樂在其中，但我也相信這只是起步，這些都談不上是「現代藝術」，但未來臺灣的「現代藝術」要從這些養分走出來，否則都是別人的語彙。
你們這幾年編《藝術觀點》，我覺得會走出一條好路，因為學術一定要跟歷史文化結合、跟臺灣的經驗結合，像現在你們已經是跟「小傳統」結合。「小傳統」就是民間的東西，這些東西是很有力量的，不要小看這一些。我們的藝術因為充斥著太多西方語彙，所以不足以感動人。我後來鼓勵藝術家雜誌出版《臺灣傳藝全集》，你以為傳藝沒有在改變嗎？像潘麗水，他畫的跟人家都不一樣啊，後來他代表臺灣的門神風格。
不容忽視的傳統技藝學徒制
龔───蕭老師提到包括說「創作的觀念」以及「藝術的觀念」，就是說我們現在藝術學院的觀念是不是太狹窄了，是不是要重新去反省這個事情？
蕭───像「學徒制」這個，幾乎無法復原。我在臺南市文化局的時候，看到有一間學校快倒了，我當時的想法就是將它轉型成「傳統藝術學校」，這種不是找年輕的學徒來學，而是找美術畢業的來學。讓它納入一個教育的體制裡面。
後來王慶臺在臺灣藝術大學裡創了「古蹟藝術修復系」，很可惜的是評鑑人都不理解而打壓，評鑑常見有兩個領域，一是學藝術的，覺得這不是藝術；學建築的覺得這只是小道，結構才是重要的。我的意思是傳統的「學徒制」還是要納入大學教育甚至技職體系裡頭。
他們畫的方式跟油畫不一樣，基本的手法也不一樣。因為材料本身就不同，像畫鬍子必須有特殊的材料，鬍子才會畫得鬆軟。臺南還有比較年輕的畫師，可以看到創作的過程，例如：洪平順、廖慶章等。老一輩的當然很多，潘岳雄等等都很有成就，以前活著且畫的最好的是陳壽彝，但是他前年過世了。
開闊性的城市活動「媽祖文化節」
蕭───「媽祖文化節」是我取名的，當時文化局成立的時候，有一個政策叫「寺廟文化優質化」。像日本的「祇園祭」，你看不到太多宗教的狂熱，看到的是藝術的展現。祇園祭的基礎在於「織繡」。
我會去做這個媽祖文化節是因為當時的市長張燦鍙，跟我提起他小時候看「迎媽祖」，人人都拿著「百百旗」非常熱鬧，讓他印象很深刻。我不知道什麼叫「百百旗」，但是我的任務就是讓「迎媽祖」的傳統復現。後來才發現「迎媽祖」已經消失五十年以上。這個傳統怎麼復現，當然要找最重要的一間廟，所以我去找大天后宮，辦了第一屆。我發覺他們迎媽祖是這樣子，它有一種叫做「踩路關」，就是明天早上要出巡了，半夜就要先起一些儀式，最重要的事是要貼一張佈告，「風雨免朝」：風神跟雨神你就不必來朝拜啦，免得把我明天的行程搞亂。
開始「踩路關」的時候，前面會有一位報馬仔，到全臺南市屬於它的「境」去走一圈，跟所有的廟交陪，媽祖出去就要有陣頭，延平郡王祠前面的那一個土地公廟的福德正神，是走第一個。媽祖是走最後一個，中間會有交陪的廟來相挺。
支持這個大天后宮的是全臺灣最大的商業團體，叫三郊。三郊就是「糖郊」、「北郊」、「南郊」。分香出去的廟每年會回來「謁祖」，就形成一個熱絡的商業活動。後來，回來不說是謁祖，而是說回來「南巡」。這下子大天后宮不能接受，怎麼會變成南巡呢？所以北港媽祖回大天后宮的進香就中斷了近百年。
所有的廟都有自己的「境」，大天后宮是所有的「境」派出的代表所成立的管理委員會，位階很高，但是被虛化掉了。第一年在迎媽祖的全部都是「佛仔館」，等於那些小廟來請神借神力而已，也沒有什麼大轎子，就是拿支彎曲的棍子，上面綁著一面黑令旗來請神。
第二年全部我主導，我才發現臺南媽祖廟就有十幾間。大甲就一個鎮瀾宮，北港就朝天宮，絕對不會有兩三間以上。後來我才知道有一個名稱叫做「港媽」，原來所有的媽祖從中國出發，全部是「船頭媽」，就是在船的前面供奉一尊媽祖來保佑行船平安，來到臺南一上岸後，第一件事情就是蓋媽祖廟。所以「三郊」的媽祖廟就是五條港的大天后宮，鹽埕也有、安平也有，鹿耳門每個地方都有。那現在既然要辦，我不要稱為「迎媽祖」，我要命名為「媽祖文化節」。
所以請大家都來，但是要來就有經費的問題，要辦一個大型的文化活動，以前就是給你錢，我現在不給錢，我補助各種活動，你出一半我出一半，以這樣對等的方式，參與者自己也要負擔一點才合理。但是很不幸，這些廟都不願意去大天后宮，讓大天后宮當老大。我就在市政府旁邊搭出一個大圍籬，取名叫做「媽祖行館」。這些都是我的創意性措施。我後來發現「百百旗」也是連橫自己創建出來的，「百百旗」就是所有廟陣出來時候的繡旗，上面貼有各種廣告物。原來是那時商業正在興起，沒有電視可以打廣告，用這個東西作為一種商業廣告。
另外進入行館內，我也請各間廟宇展覽它們的歷史，開始把舊的神像、舊的文物，都拿出來展覽。我請林鴻文設計，每一間用竹子搭建得像一根大蠟燭，很漂亮，所有旗幟上的對聯是臺南書法家寫的，那個布簾，我覺得真是了不起啊！然後所有的人進去都要買一本《天佑》手冊。
這本手冊是可以吃所有的媽祖粥，玩各種遊戲、蓋章，都不要錢外，還可以搭公車去參觀兩個地方，一個是當時第一家跟我合作的「寬宏藝術」在仁德的展覽館，參觀秦陶俑；另外一個是去四草坐船遊台江。
「行館」總共一個月，只是讓媽祖來這邊暫駐，是祂出巡駐蹕的地方。這個名稱不是我取的，因為祂們以前還沒有進大天后宮時，會在臺南市周邊的廟，先在那邊駐蹕一個晚上，稱為「行館」。我只是把它擴大。
有議員批評我：拜媽祖還要付錢嗎？我說：我不是在拜媽祖啊，我要建立一個消費者付費的概念，以前廟埕演出是大家按照丁口出錢的，也就是你家幾個丁口出多少錢用來演戲，結果現在變成免錢的。文建會早期推動地方藝文活動，請雲門等團體下鄉演出，原本是好意，結果卻反而打垮了臺灣原有的藝術消費。
辦活動要先對空間有一種想像，才能夠辦出有意義的活動。例如燈會，在高鐵旁邊辦完就拆掉，是失敗的，如果辦在愛河旁邊每年都還在辦，它一定是要跟整個城市、整個鄉鎮有所結合，才會成功。它可以變成一種「城市的活動」，不是一個「中心的活動」。我們一般稱「中心」，代表都是有邊陲才會有中心，那只是一個靜態的、封閉性的，但是要變成一個開闊性的才對。
參觀過「祗園祭」就知道，那是跟城市結合在一起的。另外「祗園祭」，它就是有一個後援會，我一直在想這也適用於臺灣的活動，若要辦一種長期性的文化活動、宗教活動，就要逐漸形成一種類似這種推動委員會來專責推，否則每辦一個活動，結束就是結束了，很可惜。
我認為鹽水蜂炮不可以穿得那麼安全無虞。不能戴安全帽、不能穿雨衣，為什麼？當你過度的防護，就純粹剩下感官，沒有感動。藝術的東西一線之隔，你如果覺得它是個儀式，該被炸就要被炸，這樣子炸人的東西就要講究，是不能夠傷害人的，掌握住這個原則，感動力就會出來。「瘟神信仰」本來就有一種消毒或是去霉運，但是不能包成那個樣子啦。有時候一種儀式，只是因為一點點小偏差，精神就不見了。
我們要辦一個大城市的活動，就要採取這種跟民間結合的模式。臺南已經多少年來缺少一種比較大型的城市活動，全民參與。我喜歡辦「城市活動」，就跟這個圓桌一樣，我們全家人每個禮拜一起吃飯，家庭便會有團聚力。城市的團聚力，來自一定的活動，就是要一直有活動嘛，才能把城市凝聚起來。
Folk-ology:
Visions for Taiwan’s Modern Art and Cities
───── Chong-ray Hsiao
Time: April 2, 2015
Interviewee: Chong-ray Hsiao (Hsiao)
Interviewer and Guests: Jow-jiun Gong (Gong), Guan-jhang Chen, Hsin Chen, Mirr Lo, Juliet Lin
Location: Hsiao’s house
Compiled by Guan-jhang Chen Translated by Hui-jun Huang
Rebuilding Taiwan’s Art Framework from Folk Art
Hsiao───I have been wanting to sort out a clear structure of Taiwanese arts for a long time. The Chronicle of Tainan had been edited from 1976 to 1997, yet it was still unfinished due to The Chronicle of Arts being incomplete. Then, the city government decided to let me be the main editor, and I finished it within six months using existing data. After finishing the project, I had been regretting for not doing justice to all artists in the history—in that project, I only listed elite artists with painting or calligraphy works instead of mentioning enough folk arts in Tainan. In my opinion, Tainan really had abundant folk art works, so I was unsatisfied with the outcome. Later, Tainan Cultural Foundation asked me whether there was anything I could do, and I planned the project of “Preliminary Historical Database of Artists and Art Groups in Tainan” and had the database indexed arts since Koxinga Period by styles, reviews and others. That was a way for people to know more about folk arts. After publication, the database offered an opportunity for people to research folk arts by categories. At the same time, I started to sort out painting of door gods.
After Lifa Shaih finishing his Art Movement History of Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period, an assumption had been made that there must be a “folk system” pertaining to which were a group of excellent artists who did not join the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition or the Taiwan Government-General Fine Arts Exhibition. In this system, Tainan and Chiayi belonged to the same city (Tainan Prefecture), yet Tainan’s art style was very traditional while Chiayi’s artists like Yu-shan Lin tried to break the tradition.
My research suggests that there were two main systems in Tainan led respectively by Chun-yuan Pan and Yu-feng Chen. They were the two top artists in the industry. I convinced them to have interviews with me and a book titled Traditional Folk Painters in Tainan was made out of the interviews. After figuring out these two systems, I found that they featured the “Local Taiwanese Style,” which was completely different from that of Lukang.
In early times, painters came to Taiwan from China for work, and returned after the case was finished. It was not until Shin-lin Guo settled down in Changhua that a system had been passed down. People in Guo’s paintings had big noses, which is a trait of people in Northwestern China. This can also be seen in many works in the Yuan and the Ming Dynasty. But one can easily notice that artists based in Tainan showed a preference for realistic style, which is achieved by their conté crayon techniques for sketches. For instance, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea is vivid yet realistic. The painting is currently stored in Baoan Temple. President Wuzhi Liao was the first person tried to preserve it, and invited experts from Germany and Japan for restoration. We had thought that old artists would use fixed manuscripts, but in fact they mastered in sketches.
In this piece, the clam monster is placed in the center as focus while the other characters around him create the dynamics of the fighting scene. This is Li-shui Pan’s work. We had not been familiar enough with this system, but found it was actually quite creative after we learned more about it. Another mural piece by Li-shui Pan is in Daitian Temple at Hamasen and has been completely restored. The Bureau of Cultural Heritage has been using the work as a model for mural restoration projects.
Many of Li-shui Pan’s murals feature Western painting skills. Female servants in his works are always high, slim and beautiful. For example, the door gods at Sunfong Temple in Kaohsiung are elegant and very similar to those in Kai-zhi Gu’s works known for their gracefulness. It is not easy to draw such elegant faces. In my opinion, paintings at Sunfong Temple were his best. At that time, the pay were more than enough for them to slowly finish their works, but later with lower pay, they tended to spend less efforts on a painting—maybe what was originally drawn with thirty strokes became twenty instead.
Gong─── In the West, all paintings and sculptures in the Middle Ages would be stored in art museums, but I have never seen any traditional paintings in Taiwan be treated with such care.
Hsiao───Take Tsao-ju Tsai for example, he did not like the idea about me reviewing his traditional paintings selected for the Taiwan Government-General Fine Arts Exhibition. He was concerned that his reputation would be tarnished. At that time, an “artist” should not be a “painter.” When I visited him, he was very healthy and energetic enough to stand up demonstrating for me when we talked about paintings. Tsai’s Guan Yu (關帝聖君) and Guanyin (觀音) were the best of the best at that time. When Bao-xia Xue was the director of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, she decided to store them, so his best works are there now.
I worked with the Department of Architecture and started an exhibition of Li-shui Pan at Tainan Assembly Hall. We took advantage of height differences of the hall and created a temple-like ceremonial space with drapes. Later in Tainan Cultural Center, I organized another exhibition named Feng-Ju-Yi-Wei, in which “Feng” refers to Yu-feng Chen, “Ju” refers to Tsao-ju Tsai, “Yi” refers to Shou-yi Chen and “Wei” refers to Guo-wei Tsai. I had great fun, but I believed that they were just a start for they were far from “modern art.” In the future, “modern art” of Taiwan needs to extract essences from these traditions, or the expressive language will always be borrowed from others.
Art Critique of Taiwan, the magazine you have been editing, will open up to something positive, because academic knowledge eventually has to be integrated with our history and culture, and local experiences in Taiwan. Now, you have already incorporated with the “small traditions,” by which I mean the traditions sprung from the folk, and are very powerful themselves. Do not underestimate their power. Our arts are already filled with Western languages and do not have enough power to move people. That is way I encouraged Artist Magazine to publish Taiwan Traditional Arts Series. Do you think traditional arts stopped evolving? No, just like Li-shui Pan’s paintings, they were very different from those of others, and he turned out to be the one having dominated the artistic style of door gods paintings since.
The Imperative of Apprenticeship in Traditional Crafting
Gong───You mentioned something about “concepts of creation” and “concepts of art.” Are you suggesting that what we have learned in art academies today is too narrow and needs reevaluation?
Hsiao───For example, apprenticeship cannot be restored in the modern society. When I was in the Culture Affairs Bureau of Tainan, I knew that a school was about to close down, and my solution was to change it into a “traditional art school,” which enrolled art graduates instead of any young apprentices. I wanted to incorporate apprenticeship into the education system.
Later, Ching-tai Wang founded Department of Architecture Conservation in National Taiwan University of Arts. It was greatly regrettable that evaluation commissioners did not understand it enough and tried to downgrade it. Such commissioners were often from two fields: art and architecture. Those with art background thought conservation is not art while those with architecture background thought conservation was just about some trivial and worthless tricks compared to architectural structures. What I want to say is traditional apprenticeship must be incorporated into higher education and even vocational education system.
The methods that traditional painters use are very different from those in making oil paintings. Their skills also vary due to application of different materials. For example, drawing beards needs special materials to make them look soft and fluffy. In Tainan, we still have rather young artists creating new pieces. Ping-shun Hong and Qing-zhang Liao, to name but a few; of course, we also have many elder ones who have great reputations like Yue-xiong Pan. To me, the best of them was Shou-yi Chen, who sadly passed away the year before last.
“The Matzu Festival” as an Expansive Urban Event
Hsiao───“Matzu Cultural Festival” was named by me. When the Culture Affairs Bureau was founded, there was a policy of “Enhancing Temple Culture.” It was more like the “Gion Matsuri” in Japan, which advocates artistic expressions rather than religious zeal. In particular, the core of Gion Matsuri is the art of embroidery.
The reason behind my initiative of the festival was because George Tsan-hung Chang, the Mayor of Tainan then. He told me about his childhood memory of everyone cheerfully “welcoming Matzu” with a hundred-flag in hand and that was very impressive. I did not know what a hundred-flag was but I know my task was to bring the tradition of “welcoming Matzu” back. Not until then did I learn that the tradition of “welcoming Matzu” had lost for more than fifty years. To recover the tradition, I needed to start from the most important temple, so I worked with Grand Matsu Temple to co-organize the first Matzu Cultural Festival. I learned how to welcome Matzu: it starts with “cai-lu-guan” (踩路關) during which people should start several ceremonies in the night before the day of welcoming Matzu. The most important thing is to post a notice saying that the Wind and the Rain are not required to be present in case their presence would spoil the mood.
When “cai-lu-guan” starts, a scout would patrol all of “the religious realm” in Tainan City and to “kau-puê” (negotiate) with every temple. Later, when Matzu patrols, the temple group affiliated with the Earth God based in front of Koxinga Temple would be the first in the parade. Matzu is always the last in the parade in which temple groups that kau-puê with (support) Matzu would walk in between to further enrich the parade.
The business group supporting Grand Matsu Temple was the biggest in Tainan and even in Taiwan. Its name was San-Jiao (三郊 Three Guilds), which consisted of “the Sugar Guild,” “the North Guild” and “the South Guild.” Every year, temples “granted a share of joss sticks”1 from Grand Matsu Temple would return here to “pay respect and report to the origin” and the return itself would bring about vigorous business activities. Later the return was called “reporting to the origin” no more but “patrolling to the South.” Grand Matsu Temple could not accept such degradation, so the activity of Matzu returning from Chao-Tian Temple in Beigang to Grand Matsu Temple in Tainan had stopped for almost a hundred years.
All temples have their own “realm” and Grand Matsu Temple is like the committee consisting of representatives from all “realms.” It used to enjoy a high position in hierarchy, but later its power was weakened. The first of the festival was attended by small temples hoping to borrow power from Matzu. There were no big god sedans but only bended sticks with black flags to summon gods.
I was the only organizer of the festival the next year and it was then that I realized that there were more than a dozen Matzu temples in Tainan. In Tachia, there is only one Zhenlan Temple; in Beigang, there is only one Chao-Tian Temple. It has never been heard of that more than two or three Matzu temples co-exist. So I learned a word of “Gang-Ma” (港 媽 Harbor Mother). In ancient times, all Matzu were from China as “Chuan-Tou-Ma” (船頭媽 Matzu at the boat bow), which were put at
the front of boats to keep sailors in safe. When these sailors arrived Tainan, the first thing they did was building a Matzu temple. Therefore, the Matzu temple of “San-Jiao” was Grand Matsu Temple in Wu-Tiao Gang, while Yan-Cheng, Anping and Luermen also had their own Matzu temples. That was why I said that the event should not be named “Welcoming Matzu,” but “Matzu Cultural Festival” instead.
The attempt to invite every temple was confronted by budget shortage. In the past, hosting a big cultural activity would be granted with full budgets. But the government then stopped covering all budgets but sponsored the activities instead. It was reasonable to me that all participants should pay their parts to create a balanced relationship. But unfortunately, those temples were not willing to go to Grand Matsu Temple to make it the boss of them, so I made a huge fence beside the City Government and named it “Matsu’s Chateau.” This was a creative move. Later I learned that the hundred-flags were pure invention of Heng Lian, and they were actually embroidered flags that various temple groups used for commercial advertisement as people at that time did not yet have televisions to serve such function.
I asked participating temples to tell their stories by exhibiting old statues and cultural heritage in the chateau. I also invited Hung-wen Lin to design for us. Every exhibition room was built with bamboo, like a huge, pretty candle. All couplets on flags were written by local calligraphers in Tainan. Those flags were superb. Every tourist needed to buy a booklet named Tian-You (God Bless) before entering the chateau.
With the booklet, one could enjoy various activities such as having Matzu porridge, playing games and collecting stamps for free. They could also visit two places by bus. One was a Qin pottery figurine exhibition center in Rende operated by Kuang Hong Arts, which was the first company that cooperated with me. The other one was Sicao where people could cruise along Taijiang.
The chateau had been there for a month. It was only for Matzu to live as a temporary residence and a site for Her to start the patrolling trip. The idea to call it a “chateau” was not mine. In the past when pilgrims had not yet reached Grand Matsu Temple, they would stay in temples around Tainan City for a night. Those temples were therefore named as “chateaus,” and what I did was to expand the very concept.
“Why do we have to pay to worship Matzu?” some legislators challenged me. “It is not just about worshiping Matzu,” I replied, “My goal is to set up an idea of ‘user pays’.” In the past, performances in front of temples would charge by the number of the viewer’s family members—the viewer needed to pay for performances which became free later. The Ministry of Culture once invited various art groups like Cloud Gate to perform in rural areas in order to promote local cultural activities. Its intention was good, but it turned out to kill existing cultural consumption.
One must have some imagination of the space to organize an activity and to make it meaningful. The lantern festival held beside the THSR station was bound to fail, because all the lanterns would be removed right after the festival ended. But holding it along the Love River can make it a yearly event. An event can only succeed when the whole city or the whole county was incorporated into the planning. It means the whole city rather than a fixed “center” was taken into consideration. Generally, a center implies that there are marginal areas. What we need is an expansive and inclusive urban event rather than a static and closed one.
People having attended Gion Matsuri would know that it is closely connected with the city. Also, Gion Matsuri has its own committee. I believe this should be applied to events in Taiwan. When you are trying to organize a long-term cultural or religious event, it is necessary to form an exclusive organization committee; otherwise, an activity will end with nothing to pass down. It is really regrettable.
I do not think one should be perfectly protective when attending Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival. You should not wear any helmet or raincoat. Why is that? When you over-protect yourself, all you have is the sensory excitement but not the spiritual sensation. Such artistic experience is difficult to be clear-cut, but if you realize that it is a ceremony, you would take the risk of being shot by firecrackers. On the other hand, the organizers would start to pay attention to safety issues when setting firecrackers off. It is only then can people be overwhelmed by the power of the ceremony. It is true that worship of the god of plague has always been associated with sanitization or expelling of bad luck, but people should not wrap themselves like that. Sometimes, a ceremony loses its essence because of a tiny deviation.
Engaging the folk is the key should we hold an activity for a big city. Tainan has been lacking large city activities for all citizens to take part. I love to organize urban events that engage citizens. Just like this round table allowing family members to gather together for a weekly meal, the family tie is strongly reinforced simply by eating at it. It is the same with creating citizens’ identification with the city, and that has to be done by activities and activity participation.