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The 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival – City’s West Side Serving as Stage for First Time “Dancing Rooster” Mini Lanterns Officially Unveiled

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Post date:2017-01-26

Updates:2019-09-09

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The Taipei Lantern Festival is being held on the city’s west side for the first time in its 20-year history, in the North Gate/Zhonghua Road area. Today, December 19, the Taipei City Government held a press conference unveiling the Year of the Rooster mini lantern, during which Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen Chin-jun officially announced that the Taipei Lantern Festival will run from February 4 to 12. Accompanying him on stage were Yang Kuei-Mei, queen of the Golden Horse movie awards, who was born on Taipei’s west side, renowned film director Yeh Tien-Lun, and singer Jimmy Lin (Lin Yu Chun). The “Dancing Rooster” mini lantern was also officially debuted at the press conference. The design of the handle copies the North Gate, with the gate symbolically “giving birth” to the little rooster. At the main display and entertainment area for the 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival, a “Street Theater” concept is being featured for the first time, integrating the visual design elements used for concerts to create a unique Theme Lantern Area. Anime aesthetic artist No2Good has been invited to design the main theme lantern lighting, which brims with the local Ximending trendy fashion sense.

Deputy Mayor Chen announced that the 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival would break with tradition, and would not be staged in a closed venue. The event has been moved, and is being held for the first time in the North Gate/Zhonghua Road Section 1 area. The rebirth of Beimen (the North Gate), is the critical first step in launching the city’s West District Gateway Project. During the Lantern Festival, revelers can enjoy different theme-lantern areas all along Section 1 of Zhonghua Road, and can enjoy a wonderful light-sculpture show at the North Gate, presenting the elegance of the old city over the past century.

 

The 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival “Dancing Rooster” mini lantern unveiled at the press conference has a finely crafted appearance. The clever key to the design is a pendulum center of gravity structure, enabling the rooster to swing back and forth with rhythm and lifelike vitality. The handle is in the shape of the North Gate, the gate symbolically “hatching” the little rooster. According to Chien Yu-yen, Commissioner of the Taipei City Government’s Department of Information and Tourism, the Year of the Rooster mini lanterns are now in mass production, and will be ready for distribution to the public in the new year on Lantern Festival Eve. She stated that further details on the gratis giveaway will be provided at a future press conference, and also announced on the official 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival website.

Golden Horse queen and daughter of Wanhua Yang Kuei-Mei stated that in her youth she frequently went to see movies at Ximending’s cinemas, which inspired her interest in performing. She thus has deep feelings for “Cinema Street.” In the film The Mad King of Taipei, on which she worked with director Yeh Tien-Lun, she played a “red envelope singing theater” singer, leaving her with even deeper understanding of the local Ximending culture. She believes that staging the Taipei Lantern Festival on the west side that she knows and loves so well will attract even more people to come experience its unique charms and attractions.


Director Yeh was born in nearby Dadaocheng. He has a passion for the history of the west district, which he finds is his best source of creative inspiration. From the TV drama series La Grande Chaumiere Violette to his latest film, The Mad King of Taipei, in which Ximending serves as backdrop for the main scenes, all are tales from the west side story. Yeh stated that not only has the west side’s soil provided the nutrients for his own cultivation, but for a world-class actress and singer as well, and he believes that staging the Taipei Lantern Festival here is certain to make it an internationally renowned festival attraction.


 

Jimmy Lin, who was born and grew up in Wanhua, lives near the area’s Nanjichang Night Market. He is intimately familiar with the delicious local cuisine, and as a singer has special fondness for Chengdu Starfruit Ice, soothing for the throat and good for his voice. His management company also happens to be in Ximending. Clearly, there is an inseparable relationship between the west district and Lin’s life and work. At the press conference the singer, popularly known as “Little Fatty,” echoed the Taipei Lantern Festival theme by singing an an adapted version of Teresa Teng’s famed “Small Town Story” a cappella, inviting one and all to come “be a guest of the west side” next year.

The main display and entertainment area for the 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival will be set up beside MRT Ximen Station. A street theater concept is being used to showcase the special character of Ximending’s neighborhood blocks. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held here, both to be large-scale cross-boundary shows that will be creative fusions of urban aesthetics and audio-visual artistry. Renowned fashion-brand designer No2Good, who has been called the first anime aesthetics artist in the Chinese-speaking world, has been invited to bring his inspired cutting-edge design sense to this area. No2Good said that he was a Shezi kid, and grew up in Taipei, pursuing his studies and then pursuing his dreams, adding that he has a strong emotional attachment to Ximending. For the overarching design for the Lantern Festival’s main display and entertainment area, he is integrating Ximending’s popular fashion-trend elements, and revealed that his intent is to create an experience of one-of- a-kid character in order to leave the deepest possible impression of the west district on visiting domestic and foreign visitors.

Elsewhere, on Section 1 of Zhonghua Road, beyond the Lantern Riddle activities, an annual attraction not to be missed, there will also be numerous specialty-theme lantern areas, including a “Universiade Interactive Zone” offering stimulating participatory fun, a joy-filled “Landscape Creativity Area,” happiness-incubation “Blessings Lantern Area,” youth-dynamism “Student Creativity Area,” and radiantly artistic “Freestyle Creativity Area,” as well as enticing light- sculpture shows at the North Gate and Zhongshan Hall. A total of more than 10 artists are participating in the Lantern Festival, contributing their considerable talent to brining the public a refreshing new experience completely different from the past.

The theme for the upcoming Taipei Lantern Festival is “Westside Story, Taipei Glory,” and over its 9-day stretch many more stories from the west side’s glorious history will be told. For more information on the splendid program, lantern enjoyment, mini lantern giveaways, and other matters, please visit the official 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival website (http://2017.lanternfestival.taipei). There will be continual updates on all the news, so be sure to check up on things regularly. Let’s all come together to make this Taipei west side New Year celebration truly unforgettable.

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