We got a lot done despite the later wake up. Malli and I had time to visit the Starbucks a couple blocks down from our hotel, as we wanted to check out the different menu options. I got the hojicha tea latte as it is one of my favorite teas: definitely 10/10. Our first stop with the class was the National Taichung Theater, which is a feat of architecture designed by Toyo Ito. We showed up early and were told we could wait at the outdoor amphitheater, as they were expecting some people of import (I didn’t know who they were, otherwise I would’ve sniped a photo!). We ended up having an impromptu talent show sinced the stage and adjoining wings were open (you can kind of see them in the second image below). Mikey walked in a handstand, April showed us her double jointed shoulders, Ayden told us a funny story, and both Joelle and Prof. Chen (!!!) sang. Some passerby even stopped to watch until we left to walk around the theater. 

As you can see in the image below, there are few straight lines or walls. The curves lend to different sound reverberations and create a warmer feel in the space by allowing natural light to reflect better through the skylights and windows. I also learned that most buildings here do not list a fourth floor. Instead, they either skip to the fifth floor or write floor four in some other way, because the number four sounds like the word for death and is thus considered unlucky. I unfortunately couldn’t see the main performance hall since there were no performances happening that day, but we got to tour some of the other floors and look around their extensive gift shop village. I enjoyed strolling around the garden on the roof and took many great pictures of in which the curved walls framed the flowers and the surrounding buildings well. 

The theater was a prime example of the integration of culture and business. The fifth floor oddly had a lot of household furniture and decorations for sale: not your typical souvenirs, I would think. The bottom floor had an entire area designated for selling local crafted items, and Prof. Young bought 12 Chinese zodiac wooden figures to pick from. I got lucky and snagged my zodiac, the monkey. The theater itself had some merch, including mascots/distinct cartoons and 3D models of the buidling.

Afterwards we had a 40 minute bus ride to Lukang Historic District. Many of the homes maintained their older style layout, with a large main hall with space for a household altar. These same homes all had altars that strongly resembled those in the temples we visited. We learned that one of the main reasons people preferred to have sons was because only males used to be able to light incense for the household deities, and to not have a son meant you could not appease the gods. Today, they are a lot more progressive in who is allowed to perform rituals. I also noted a lot more charms and auspicious banners hanging in the doorways of these homes. The charms hanging from doorhandles would have complicated knots and would be woven with coins or gourds to bring in fortune, and the banners would have characters written on them for specific blessings such as having good health or a prosperous marriage.

At the end of the historic district we saw a large Mazu temple (there were some smaller temples along the way), also known as the Lukang Tianhou Temple. Outside of it, there was a bulletin board plastered with many talisman looking banners (see image on the left). These had people’s addresses and Mazu’s birthday written on them in order for those people to receive Mazu’s blessing. Peter pointed out that this temple also has a spider ceiling, which had an aged look to it because many of the original paintings and figures have been maintained throughout each renovation. This spiderweb pattern is also a celestial vault, and if you can look closely you can see little deities dancing in the heavens. The figure of Mazu is similarly ancient and actually was brought over from the Fujin province in China, like many other figures that were brought from the mainland by the many migrants throughout the years.

There were a few floors to explore, and Peter bought us spirit money that we could offer to them. I ended up circling the whole temple with a stack of it before eventually offering it to the Jade Emperor. This temple’s size and popularity was also reflected in the material services offered. Many of the deities had a table with some kind of physical amulet that you could bring with you if you donated and prayed to the them. For example, Mazu’s image with her name and birthday was offered on small plastic tablets that you can hang from a bag. Another deity had some kind of powder that could ward off evil, and the god of knowledge that students pray to for exams had brush pens wrapped in a talisman (most of us ended up getting one of those; I guess now I’ll also have to get an ink block and stone as a souvenir).

Lastly, we went to the Fengchia Night Market back in Taichung. It had a much different setup than the Hanxi Market we had visited previously. Where Hanxi was much more self-contained, Fengchia ran from the local university along a busy road and branched off slightly into other shopping areas. We ended up getting a little turned around trying to find food we wanted to try. Ayden was brave enough to try alligator, but I ended up going with some safer sounding pork rolls with scallions and scallion pancakes (we love scallions). After finishing up with an uno night back at the hotel, I turned in a little later since we didn’t have to pack until after 10:00 AM and leave for Kaohsiung.