This year, the 11th Cross-Strait Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival was entered, and the incense flag festival was held in Shimu Palace in Meinong District, Kaohsiung. The scene attracted representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, believers and many palaces and temples in Taiwan to participate in the event.
Since the first Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival was held in Siming District, Xiamen City in 2009, it has caused widespread resounding among Taiwanese believers. Since 2013, the Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival has been changed to a joint organizing cross-straits, and it is hosted by Taiwan and Xiamen one by one. This year, it was selected for the first time at the Shimu Palace in Minon, a Hakka settlement in Taiwan.
This Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival is themed "Integrated Development, Create Success Together". It is jointly organized by the mass culture association of Xiamen Siming District, Xiamen Yanping County King Temple, Taiwan Sacrifice Zheng Chenggong Kaitai Saint King Federation, Tainan Zheng Chenggong Ancestral Temple, Kaohsiung Minon Stone Mother Palace, and the Tainan Cultural Association, the legal person of the society. During the Cultural Festival, a total of more than 400 believers from 19 temples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were welcomed to participate. In addition to the increase in the number of participants and further expansion of the scale, this year also added many new highlights.
1 The first time it was held in the Hakka settlement in Taiwan
The faith of Zheng Chenggong has been circulating in Taiwan for more than 300 years and has been recognized by all ethnic groups on the island. When the Yanping County Prince Temple in Hongshan, Xiamen held the first Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival, many Taiwanese temples came to enjoy the fragrance. Wang Lei, director of the Siming District Cultural Center of Xiamen City, said in an interview with a reporter from the Guide's Taiwan that it is generally believed that most of the people who believe in Zheng Chenggong in Taiwan are from Zhangzhou or Quanzhou. This year's Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival was chosen in the Hakka region of Taiwan for the first time, which shows that Zheng Chenggong is also admired by the Hakka people, which means that Zheng Chenggong's belief is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in Taiwan.
The existence of Shimu Palace in Meinong District, Kaohsiung breaks the myth of "Hakka people do not worship Zheng Chenggong". According to local folk legends in Minon, when Zheng Chenggong came to Taiwan the second year, he led his generals to the Minon Mountains, where he stockpiled soldiers, grass, money and grain, and stored civil and military talents. At that time, Zheng Chenggong found that it was like a "mother-son stone" that a woman breastfeeded in the wild smoke. Because he was grateful to his mother, he worshipped Zheng's mother here. Chen Yuxiang, chairman of Minon Stone Mother Palace, said in an interview that Hakka people originally had the custom of worshiping "Stone Mother". It is rumored that Zheng's mother gave birth to Zheng Chenggong under a huge rock by the sea. After Zheng Chenggong arrived in Minon, he followed the Hakka people's belief to regard "Stone Mother" as his mother. The Hakka people also thanked him for his blessing and established a temple here. The second floor of Shimu Palace is worshipped on the mother of Zheng, and the first floor is worshipped on the king of Yanping County, Zheng Chenggong.
Chen Yuxiang said that Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival is a good platform for folk cultural exchange. Through such activities, Taiwanese believers have the opportunity to go to Xiamen to understand the reasons for Zheng Chenggong's beliefs, and Xiamen believers can also go to Taiwan to understand the customs of Hakka people, "Learn more, you will have more contacts in the future."
This time, the cultural festival was held in the Hakka area of Kaohsiung. More than ten palace chairmen of the temple worshipping Mazu, Guan Gong and Guanyin in the Minong area, including Minong Tianhou Palace, Guangxing Shanhua Hall, Guanglin Shenghua Palace, Guangxing Cisheng Palace, Dexing Palace, etc., came together, which was enough to demonstrate the influence of Zheng Chenggong culture in Taiwan. Wang Lei, director of the Siming District Cultural Center of Xiamen City, said that the Cultural Festival has promoted the exchange of folk culture between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, which demonstrates the theme of "integrated development and joint success".
2 "Huixiang Banner" has become a token of palace temples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait
At the "Yanping County Prince Huixiang Banner Festival" of this Cross-Strait Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival, the most popular thing is the colorful "Huixiang Banner" decorated in front of Shimu Palace. At the festival ceremony , the organizer of this year, Fang Shimu Palace, also handed the incense flag to the representatives of the next Xiamen organizer, and also called on all palaces and temples in Taiwan to actively participate in the Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival held in Xiamen next year.
Zheng Daocong from the Xiamen Representative Office of Tainan Cultural Association said in an interview with the Guide that in Fujian and Taiwan, it is a common folk custom to communicate with tokens between palaces and temples. This token can be a God Lord, a incense stick, a token or a incense flag. He said that the temples and temples that believe in Zheng Chenggong on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been exchanged for more than ten years, and they have a deep relationship with each other, but they have never had a fixed token.Therefore, in this session, this "Huixiang Banner" was jointly produced by the Yanping County Prince Temple in Xiamen and the Zheng Chenggong Ancestral Temple in Tainan, representing the inheritance and continuation of this activity and the cross-strait nature.
Xiamen Siming District Cultural Center Director Wang Lei also said in an interview that the Zhengcheng Cultural Festival on both sides of the Taiwan Strait was produced for the first time, as a public token of the cultural festival. In the future, no matter which temple you are held in, this incense flag will be in the temple, forming a rotation system. At the same time, this "Huixiang Banner" also has strong appeal and credibility, attracting active participation from various temples in Taiwan.
The golden flag has a great background. According to the organizer, it was carefully crafted by Lin Yuquan, one of the most famous craftsmen in Taiwan and the 78-year-old inheritor of "Fuwei Embroidery", which took nearly two months to carefully craftsmanship. After the production of Huixiang Banner, the "Changxiang" ceremony was held in Taiwan, and the palaces and temples worshipping Zheng Chengan Palace, including Gongliao Aodi Qing'an Palace, Jinshan Chengtian Palace, Changhua Kaiji Zheng Chenggong Temple, Tainan Luermen Town Palace Temple, and Kaiyuan Hall in Xikou of Chiayi, representing the alliance between each other, which is the first of the exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
3 Xiamen Nanmu sings the "hometown accent" between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait
This Zheng Chenggong Cultural Festival also specially invited members from Xiamen Nanmu Research Association to Taiwan to bring classic Nanmu songs such as "Meet with You", " Plum Blossom Fuck ", and "Love to You in the Countryside" to Taiwanese people, and sing the "hometown accent" in front of Shimu Palace.
Nanyin is also known as Nanqu, Nanguan, chord, and Nanmu. It consists of three parts: "finger", "score" and "qu". It is said that it was brought into southern Fujian by immigrants in the Central Plains and merged with local folk music. It is now widely circulated in Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou and overseas Chinese settlements in Southeast Asian countries. Nanyin is also known as the "living fossil of world music" and has been officially included in the list of representative works of human intangible cultural heritage published by UNESCO. The 2017 Nanyin performance was unveiled during the BRICS Conference, making Nanyin a "golden signboard" of Xiamen's culture and art.
Xiamen Nanle Research Association was officially registered and established in 1951. The members are all Nanyin enthusiasts from all walks of life. Zhang Guoxiong, president of the Research Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Guide's Taiwan that the whole world is now conducting in-depth research and development of Nanyin, not only because Nanyin is an artistic masterpiece, but also because Nanyin is connected with many traditional Chinese cultures. Especially for compatriots in Taiwan and Chinese at home and abroad, the southern sound is actually the "hometown accent" and represents a kind of "hometown accent". Zhang Guoxiong said that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are originally one family, and many people in Taiwan have their ancestral homes from Fujian's Fujian generation, so the inheritance and retention of Nanyin in Taiwan are relatively intact, and many Nanyin music clubs are spread all over Taiwan. He pointed out that in cross-strait exchanges, Nanyin can become a good cultural bridge.
Xiamen's Nanyin performance was warmly welcomed in Meinong, Kaohsiung, attracting many villagers to come and watch. At this concert, art music artists from Hakka from Taiwan also came on stage to perform together, singing and laughing on the spot, showing the integrated development of Fujian-gu culture on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Straits Guide reporter in Taiwan Lin Jingxian Text/Photo
