Taiwan Today

A young deity finds a tempo unique to .

The 2009 World Games held in in July last year grabbed attention at home and abroad due to the unprecedented scale of the event for , the striking architecture of the main stadium and the spectacle of the opening ceremony. Adopting the theme of “homegrown fashion,” the opening show presented a diversity of cultural symbols including those from the folk tradition of temple festivals. At the beginning of one scene entitled Blessings for All, 40 people wearing oversized masks of a baby-faced god called Lí Lô-tshia and dressed in elaborate costumes entered the stadium on motor scooters and then danced around to electronic music. Taller body puppets of various gods followed—huge moving figures with an operator inside—as well as people holding gorgeous canopies, banners and sedan chairs who walked in procession just as they do in traditional temple parades to celebrate a god’s birthday.

Indeed, the inclusion of Lí Lô-tshia, commonly known as the Third Prince or Sam Thài Tsú in Holo, represented a rebirth of traditional grassroots culture, while the energetic, electronic music played during the performance explained the popular name for such shows—Techno Sam Thài Tsú.

The World Games performance, arguably the most memorable of the year for the general public in Taiwan, was designed to be “an exquisite, modern and very Taiwanese” folk religion parade, according to Ju Tzong-ching, director of the opening event and president of the Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). A local Kaohsiung Techno Sam Thài Tsú group and senior high school students from several schools in the area arranged the performance for the opening show.

Ju came up with idea of including the dancing gods in the World Games show after seeing a similar performance by a Techno Sam Thài Tsú group from , southern in October 2008 when TNUA and a local temple jointly organized a folk art parade during an annual art festival. The Chiayi group attracted the attention of Ju and many other visitors at the time. “That unique blend of old and new, worship and entertainment has huge potential for performance art,” says Ju, a musician and former director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

The innovative performance style is thought to have been created by a group of Sam Thài Tsú believers associated with in ’s in central . The main deity of the temple, which was built in 1700, is the widely beloved goddess Ma Zu or Queen of Heaven. In a temple festival parade, participating troupes, called tīn thâo in Holo, meaning literally “front of an array,” compete with each other for popularity among believers and onlookers.

Crowd Pleasers

The troupes, including lion dance performers, drummers and stilt walkers, precede the arrival of the main deity of the celebration and often serve to warm up the crowd. The events are usually accompanied by traditional dramatic music such as pak kúan (northern style) and lâm kúan (southern style).

More than a decade ago, a Chaotian Temple Sam Thài Tsú group led by You Zhong-bin began to incorporate pop music coupled with easy dance moves in its traditional Sam Thài Tsú processions. You says that the relatively smaller costumes for Sam Thài Tsú, which are little more than a large mask and colorful clothes, give the performer more freedom of movement than the traditional, larger body puppets and were introduced in the early 1960s as “children” of the major gods.

Called Nezha in Mandarin and Nataku or Nata in Japanese, Sam Thài Tsú has long been a very popular folk god in East Asian societies and also has a presence in classical Chinese novels such as Creation of the Gods and Journey to the West, as well as in modern cartoon works. Like the parallel deities of Greek and Roman mythologies, Sam Thài Tsú plays corresponding roles in Buddhist and Taoist legends, with his origin found in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text as Nalakuvara, the third son of the north guardian king Vaisravana. In Chinese mythology, Nezha was the third son of Li Jing, a great military leader who helped found a new dynasty about 3,100 years ago and then retired to develop himself into a divine being. While the Buddhist texts present Sam Thài Tsú largely as a protector of Buddhist decrees, in the Taoist writings he becomes a marshal of divine soldiers under the Emperor of Heaven, hence the military image of him in ’s folk religion as carrying the command flags of a warrior on his back.

Sam Thài Tsú is often presented in folklore as a difficult child, who developed a tense relationship with his father. After causing a serious accident at a very young age that his father considered an unforgivable crime, the child prodigy killed himself by cutting his body into pieces and giving his flesh and bones back to his parents. His resurrection came about after an immortal sage used lotus stems and blossoms to reconstruct the boy’s body. Endowed with strength and powerful weapons from the sage, Sam Thài Tsú is commonly depicted as a young boy clad in lotus leaves and flowers, flying with a wheel of fire under each foot, a red sash around his shoulder and a “cosmic ring” and a spear in his hands. Sometimes he is given multiple faces and arms to suggest his formidable power. As a great warrior, he is capable of overcoming many evil forces and helps maintain heavenly order.

Group leader You Zhong-bin, who is also a sculptor of god statues, says that he considers gods not only capable of blessing people, but also able to give them happiness. He says that the lotus associated with Sam Thài Tsú signifies a new, stronger life aimed at future accomplishments and free of past regrets. More significantly, You says that Sam Thài Tsú is the kind of young boy that tends to ignore rules and constraints.

New Lease on Life

Such youthful, rebellious energy became an inspiration for You’s intention to revitalize the traditional style of performance at folk religion events. “Folk tīn thâo culture was in decline and I tried to add something new to it,” You says. “We play pop songs that can quickly cheer up audiences as Sam Thài Tsú dances around in a casual, happy way.” He notes that temple directors were reluctant to accept his group’s playful approach at first, considering it somewhat indecorous, but they gradually developed a more positive view toward the style that honors the gods and makes people happy, too. “Now they invite us to perform,” he says.

Every year You’s troupe takes part in ’s annual pilgrimage of its Ma Zu statue and celebrates the goddess’s birthday on the 23rd day of the third month in the lunar calendar. The association with Ma Zu is significant because the goddess is a top deity in and has been venerated since Han Chinese settlers sailed across the in large numbers some 400 years ago. In folklore, Ma Zu was born into a family in southeastern ’s coastal province in the year 960. Not crying for a full month after birth, she was given the name Lin Mo-niang meaning “silent lady.” Before her mortal life ended at the age of 28, she would from time to time fall into a trance and appear to fishermen facing danger at sea. As a guardian of seafarers, she was said to ascend to heaven on the ninth lunar month’s ninth day, the same day held to be Sam Thài Tsú’s birthday. There are more than 800 temples dedicated to Ma Zu in , which has developed a much greater intensity and diversity of Ma Zu worship than its place of origin in mainland . Ma Zu festival celebrations seize each year like carnivals, notably the one-week “tour” of the goddess statue organized by at ’s , during which the faithful walk a more than 300-kilometer circuit of dozens of temples in central . In fact, some foreign Ma Zu temples draw divine inspiration from Taiwanese temples rather than those in mainland . The splendid Ma Zu temple established in ’s , for example, recognizes the Grand Ma Zu Temple in southern ’s as its “mother house.”

Sam Thài Tsú performances are not limited to temple festivals, but can also be seen at nonreligious events held in the public and private sectors, such as election campaign events, where they create an immediate festive feel and add a local flavor. You points out that despite its origin from specific religious rituals, Techno Sam Thài Tsú is first and foremost a performance for fun, with the result that various divine figures are free to appear on any kind of stage. At a recent opening for a government-sponsored exhibition to promote local businesses in central ’s , for example, You’s group also presented the Earth God and God of Wealth in addition to the Third Prince.

In fact, along with the close ties between Sam Thài Tsú troupes and temple performances, Techno Sam Thài Tsú enjoys an association with the local music scene. The performance by You Zhong-bin’s troupe at the opening of the exhibition in Nantou County, for example, was performed to the song, Fire, a techno music piece released in 2003 by Jerry Lo, which has become a typical soundtrack for Techno Sam Thài Tsú shows. A pop singer and songwriter noted for his techno style, Lo was associated with the New Taiwanese Songs movement in the early 1990s that broke the stronghold of Mandarin songs in the local mainstream pop market. The movement has also helped boost Taiwanese pop music as a major creative power in the Asian entertainment sector.

As the New Taiwanese Songs movement is sometimes called the tai ke music movement, You’s group calls itself Tai Ke Rock Techno Sam Thài Tsú. Literally meaning “ guest,” in recent years the term tai ke has been reappropriated, changing from a pejorative indicating local tackiness or low taste to now indicate a pride in one’s own culture and recognition of Taiwanese spirit. In a 2005 tai ke manifesto by Wu Bai, a leading singer and songwriter of the New Taiwanese Songs movement, the artist defined tai ke as a distinct way for Taiwanese people to know themselves, accept themselves and believe in themselves. “I want to find a tempo unique to ,” he wrote. You’s group was invited to perform at a 2006 tai ke rock concert held in , which Wu Bai helped organize, and the group became part of that special tempo. You says the concert marked the first time the troupe gave a public performance under the name Techno Sam Thài Tsú.

Grassroots Culture

Kuo Tsun-sheng, director of the Cinema and Drama Department at Chung Hwa School of Arts in , says that tai ke actually represents a grassroots force and a natural quality of Taiwanese culture. Students from his school were among those who took part in the World Games’ Techno Sam Thài Tsú performance, and in October 2009 the group was invited to to attend the Yosakoi folk dance festival in , which they did under the patronage of the government’s Tourism Bureau. The team from Chung Hwa School of Arts was a hit among Japanese audiences, with Kuo saying that the updated representation of an old folk art is sending a lively cultural message from southern Taiwan to northern Taiwan and beyond to the international scene. “Suppressed or ignored in the past, Taiwanese cultural elements are finding their own confident voice and presence,” he says. Just like the reincarnation of the young divinity Sam Thài Tsú, perhaps.

Write to Pat Gao at kotsijin@gmail.com