2010 Kaohsiung International Puppet Theater Festival - 高雄縣國際偶戲藝術節

As my French teacher, Elodie Hsu, proposed to me to work as an interpreter for 2010 International Kaohsiung County Puppet Theater Festival, I had no idea what this festival was about. However, the slogan of the festival: “ALL COMING” deeply interested me, so I decided to accept this offer. This festival is held annually in order to promote the heritages and the development of the three main types of puppet arts in Taiwan: shadow puppetry, hand or glove puppetry (布袋戲), and marionette puppetry. This year, there were at least 21 puppet theater groups from 9 different countries, such as Australia, Korea, Italy, French, Brazil, Bulgaria, etc.

This activity was held in Wei Wu Ying Art Center from 14-21 February 2010. During this period of time, my main responsibility was to accompany a French group of marionette puppetry named Teatro Golondrino and to give them any assistance needed. This puppet troupe was composed by two performers; a 32 years-old French young man, Christophe Croes (middle), founder and leader of Teatro Golondrino and his assistant, Jessie (right), who was responsible for lighting. I love working beside them so much because they were really friendly, funny and energetic.

Since the performance was mainly dedicated to children, many children and their parents came to the stage after the performance and asked Christophe to take picture with them. In spite of fatigue, he always gave his best smile to the audience and never refused their request to take photos with Milo, one of his marionettes.

During this festival, in total, there were 6 performances from Teatro Golondrino; 4 indoor and 2 outdoor. Overall, all of performances were going smoothly and successfully without any serious problem. Moreover, Christophe and Jessie seemed enjoying their stay in Taiwan and were satisfied with my service throughout the festival. For me, I really appreciate this chance because this annual festival allowed me to put into practice my language ability, French and Chinese and provided me such a precious experience in translating and interpreting domain as well.

Note : This interpreting job was very well paid. I got about NTD 3,000/day or about IDR 900,000/day. Not bad for a beginner interpreter like me.

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Pineapple and Lychee Culture Festival in Dashu - 鳳荔文化觀光季

Saturday, 22 May 2010

With other international exchange students from Japan, Vietnam, Poland, Korea, USA and of course Indonesia, I visited Dashu.

It's a village located in Kaohsiung County, approximately 10 minutes from Foguangshan (Buddha Light Monastery). This agricultural village is famous for its pineapple and lychee production (I knew that just after this visit, what a shame).

In Dashu, literally means "big tree", there is also a rich private university called I-shou 義守大學, which has its own hospital, shopping mall, cinema and amusement park.

Leader of this rural trip was Mr. Bosco Lee, former president of Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. (a middle age man with cap on the right side)

In this festival, every pineapple farmers should participate in a competition. They hand over their best pineapple, as seen on picture. Then, a group of juries will pick out the best pineapple as the winner. Honestly, I don't really understand the scoring criteria but I'm sure that the juries should be experts in this field. So what prize will the winner of this competition achieve? The answer is quite simple: price of their pineapples will increase and more customers will buy their production.

I'm quite certain that all of you know the fruit on the left side. Yes, it's lychee.. Lychee is a tropical and subtropical fruit that can be primarily found in Asia, Southern Africa and Mexico. It's a fragranced fruit with a sweet taste.

There are many cultivars of lychee and one that is extensively grown in Dashu village is named Jade purse (玉荷包 yuhebao). It is named because of its large fruits and the thick flesh within. The seed is small in this cultivar.

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Kurt Wenner - 3D street painting in Kaohsiung

Last Sunday, 16 May 2010, I visited Kurt Wenner's painting exhibition which takes place from 10-24 May 2010 near Han-lai Hotel.

As soon as I arrived at the exposition area, I realized that there's a long queue in front of the entrance. I was thinking to go back before finally decided to join the queue. The weather in Kaohsiung recently is not really cooperative, especially during daytime where the temperature could go up to 30-33 degree Celcius. Around me, almost all visitors in queue were hiding under their umbrella.

In short, after approximately one hour of queuing, we finally entered the exhibition hall. The staff offered us 2 options: whether standing on a deck where you can have the best view of the painting or taking picture with the painter (sitting on the right side) and his artwork. I took the second choice and it's the result..

Name of this drawing is Dragon King’s undersea palace.

From left to right: Matthew Chu, Evelyn Sun, me, Joshua Chen and Kurt Wenner.

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Just For My Mom (Waroeng Indo-Wenzao Festival)

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