Ghost Month and Ghost Festival

http://mandarin.about.com/od/festivals/a/ghost_month.htm

Mandarin Vocabulary for Ghost Month

English	Pinyin	Traditional Characters	Simplified Characters
altar	shén tán	神壇	神坛
ghost	guǐ	鬼	鬼
vampire	jiāng shī	殭屍	僵尸
ghost money	zhǐ qián	紙錢	纸钱
incense	xiāng	香	香
ghost month	guǐ yuè	鬼月	鬼月
feast	gōng pǐn	供品	供品
offerings	jì bài	祭拜	祭拜

Prismatic Extravaganza at the 2012 Dadaocheng Fireworks Festival

This year's Dadaocheng Fireworks Festival will be taking place between 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM on Saturday, August 18. The 20-minute-long fireworks show will run between 8:30 PM and 8:50 PM. Starting 4:30 PM, there will be a fair at the area outside floodgate 3, offering visitors a variety of snacks, goods, and entertainment. The pre-fireworks concert will kick-off at 6:30 PM, featuring performance by community groups as well as singers such as Huang Wen-hsing, Jiang Ming-juan, and Huang-fei.

Safety Advisory
In light of possible debris from fireworks, the organizers have sealed off parts of the riverside territories.
Visitors should not cross the safety lines near the bank of the river between floodgates 3 and 5. Photographers taking pictures should not set up their tripods in areas marked as off-limits.

Traffic Control
Traffic control for the vicinity will be implemented starting 6:30 PM on August 18. The territory includes the areas south of Lianzhou Street, west of Yanping N. Road, east of Huanhe N. Road, and north of Kaifeng Street. The north side of Zhongxiao Bridge is the stage of the fireworks. To ensure safety, this side of the bridge will be closed to pedestrians between midnight on August 17 and 3 AM on August 19. The entire bridge will be off-limits to both pedestrians and vehicles between 8 PM and 9 PM on August 18. Vehicles will not be allowed entry to the riverside area via floodgates 3 through 5 starting 6 AM on August 18. The floodgates will be closed to traffic between 6:30 PM and 11 PM on the same day. Drivers should also be aware that a number of roadside parking spaces near the venue of the fireworks show will be suspended on the day of the event.

Transportation
Taipei City Government will arrange transit buses to the venue. A one-zone fare is charged for passengers taking the bus. The buses will run between 5 PM and 11 PM, with roughly a service every 4 to 6 minutes. The three routes include: Route 1: MRT Shuanglian Station – Dadaocheng Wharf (near Gate 5) Route 2: Taipei Main Station (East 3 Exit) – Zhongxing Hospital (near Gate 3) In addition, those traveling to MRT Daqiaotou Station (Exit 2) can also take the following buses: 2, 9, 223, 302, 208, and 208 limited to the event venue.

2012 Dadaocheng Fireworks FestivalDate: Saturday, August 18
Time: 6:30PM – 9:30PM (Fireworks – 8:30~8:50PM)
Venue: Dadaocheng Wharf
Released by Taipei City Government

http://english.trtc.com.tw/ct.asp?xItem=30658352&ctNode=11752&mp=122032

http://www.taipeitravel.net/frontsite/tw/cms/cmsAction.do?method=goCMSDetail&menuId=2010101&contentId=5962

Din Tao: Leader of the Parade

Din Tao Leader of the Parade  New York Asian Film Festival 2012

http://www.subwaycinema.com/nyaff12/films/din-tao-leader-of-the-parade/

Taiwan, 2012
North American Premiere
124 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles
Directed by: Fung Kai
Starring: Allen Ko, Chen Po-cheng, Liao Chun, Alien Huang

Part of Warriors and Romantics: the New Cinema From Taiwan

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Thursday, July 5 @ 4pm (buy tickets)
Tuesday, July 10 @ 9pm (buy tickets)

DIN TAO’s box office story is as miraculous as the story it tells onscreen about two feuding leaders of rival Din Tao groups. First off: Din Tao is a traditional Taiwanese drumming performance in which the players dress like gods and take on their divine aspects in wild, orgiastic onslaughts of percussion, dancing oversized puppets, and mask work. When the film opened, some shows only sold ONE ticket. But director Fung Kai relentlessly promotes his debut film, and slowly word-of-mouth built, and by the time Chinese New Year arrived, it annihilated all seven of the other major releases, from Hollywood blockbusters, to posh star vehicles. Right now, DIN TAO is the number one hit of the year in Taiwan, racking up over NT$300 million at the box office.

Based on the true story of the Chio-Tian Folk Drums & Arts Troupe, DIN TAO begins in failure. A-Tai has gone to Taipei to become a rocker, but he’s a born quitter, and returns home, blustering that he’s going to America to become a rock star Any Day Now. His disciplinarian daddy runs a crummy, second-rate Din Tao troupe, and he and A-Tai’s relationship is all loveless, raging arguments. But after getting in a brawl with a rival Din Tao troupe (run by his dad’s nemesis) A-Tai’s pride is at stake and he vows to go toe-to-toe with Wu Cheng’s troupe and beat their butts.

Din Tao is not some quaint folk art – most troupes are made up of homeless kids and gang members who need quick cash. But the Chio-Tian Folk Drums & Arts Troupe embraced the idea that the moment they put on their divine make-up they were, for all intents and purposes, transformed into gods. To push themselves spiritually they strapped their enormous drums to their backs and ran around Taiwan, visiting temples along the way. The unexpected success of this film has led to a Din Tao revival, and performances are suddenly springing up everywhere, regular citizens are doing their own temple walks around the island, and kids who were formerly considered the lowest of the low are earning respect. And they should. Because sometimes that loser with dyed hair and tattoos playing the drums isn’t a hooligan. Sometimes, as DIN TAO proves, they’re also a god.

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