During our recent stay in the States, whenever people asked me if I was excited about coming back to Taiwan, I always referenced my fascination with the sporadic parades in Taiwan that just seem to materialize with little concern for the day of the week, the time of day, or the weather. These parades can consist of a couple of trucks full of musicians playing music in the back of three or four of the ubiquitous little blue trucks one sees in Taiwan or a spectacle such as the one above (for the goddes Matsu). Sometimes they're so small and fast, they seem like little musical bullets on the streets of Taipei.
These events are perhaps the best image I could present in trying to explain why I love living in Taiwan. Aside from trying to explain the history, the politics, and the people I've come to know here, the sheer unpredictability of daily life, while perhaps a terrible prospect to many, gives me comfort and provides one simple image to those who ask me about life in Taiwan. (Of course, I do quite often expound on the history, politics, and people here, too, as best I can.)
I don't particularly like when things are the same day in and day out, and my day is brightened just a little every time a truck whizzes by me with an old man thudding on a drum followed by another with a group of squealing erhu players.
I would, however, like to better understand why these seemingly spontaneous parades happen. I've been told they're for "gods' birthdays," for funerals, or for marriages. As I mentioned before, they seem to take place at any time of day, and on any day of the week. Sometimes, I can hear them all day from the rooftops of Fanfan's parents house as they wander through the streets of XinZhuang. What's strange is that, often, I don't seem to be the only one who has wandered unwittingly into a parade, because I've never actually seen a group of Taiwanese people on the sidewalk waiting for one. Everyone usually seems just as surprised as I do that there's a giant, luminescent god-truck shooting bottlerockets into the night sky, and as soon as it's all passed, everyone goes back to what they were doing.
I've got a lot left to learn about Taiwan.
