A Most Revealing Expose on the Flower Trucks

"Tonight's program celebrates the birthday of the God of Five Counties. May he live for a million years! I'm speaking for all the performers in our troupe when I say, may he live forever and ever, to protect us from disasters! May our households be filled with treasures of gold and jade. The flow of wealth will never end!" Dressed in a tight sequined nightgown, the hostess kicked the show off with a string of auspicious remarks. This was the birthday of a god. Following that, a synthesizer let forth a string of magical, illusionary sounds to draw the villagers toward the temple square from their houses where they revelled.

Nearly all the flower truck show proprietors were reluctant to be interviewed, especially those who provided "extra spicy" evening shows. In order to hunt them down. we resorted to the help of folklore expert Huang Wen-po, who has long observed the flower truck shows. Our car was rushing through the pitch dark salt fields and farmland, aiming toward the far-off impromptu show grounds, where neon light flashed and music reverberated in the air. It was nearly 8:00 pm. The banquet attendees were more or less sated as we arrived just in time for the show to begin.

Face to face with nude dancing girls, who knows how the temple gods feel?

Special delivery beauties

Only a few onlookers had gathered in front of the truck. The Taiwanese opera, set up at the other end of the temple square had no audience at all. As the music began, a young lass who looked no older than 16 came onto the stage and sang. She appeared to be unfamiliar and slightly clumsy with her dance steps, and her singing often fell behind the beat. The experienced hostess demonstrated to her how to wriggle her hips, at the same time helping her out by taking up the song where the girl lost track of her place. After she finished the song with some difficulty, the adolescent singer slipped into the flower truck. At this time the musician replaced the lyrical melody with a more up-tempo tune. The young girl came out again, but this time she had taken off her long skirt and little jacket, showing off her fresh neck and legs. She began her second song. "Ai oh! Look at this beautiful little lass. She may be young, but her waist is thin, her breasts are big, and her rump is nice and round." The host used one hand to point at different aspects of the girl's anatomy, from time to time lifting up her skirt, or twisting the lyrics of the songs into dirty jokes.

Huang Wen-po told us that when they first appeared, the flower truck shows' evening performances had so-called "three-segment songs": a singer/dancer would start the show dressed provocatively, singing a slow-paced song. Then she would take off her outer garments, leaving only a skimpy outfit hidden underneath, enticing the audience with her contortions. The third song would be a disco dance accompanied by pulsating strobe lights. By this time, the dancer was already stark naked. After developing for more than a decade, current performances are divided into two categories, crooning and stripping. The first one or two performances are devoted to pure singing to warm up the show.

On the stairs leading up to the stage extended from the flower truck stood a man chewing betelnuts. The minute the lass finished her singing, she threw a jacket over her shoulders and followed the man hastily into a luxury sedan parked to the side. "This is another wonder about flower trucks," Huang Wen-po remarked, pointing out the scene to us, as the second performer started up on the stage. That man works as bodyguard and driver. His job is to hurriedly drive the girl to the next venue of the night. In one night they may rush around to five or six shows. For pure singing, the pay is NT$800 per session. Women who work night and day can pull in nearly NT$100,000 a month. If a young miss is willing to disrobe, she can earn NT$3000 for a 15 minute set. "The work load is light, and the pay is considerable. It's just that they have to hurry around putting on shows, and car accidents happen from time to time," flower truck show proprietor Huang Wen-sheng noted.

In addition to outfits that cost more than NT$10,000, they have to recruit musicians to compose scores, so that dancers' signature melodies can be more appealing. The bodyguard/drivers have to get their cut, too. Huang Wen-sheng speculates that the money doesn't come as easy as outsiders think.

Let's all go "sight" seeing

As the music continued, the audience in the temple square grew larger and larger. No audience at all had appeared in front of the Taiwanese opera stage. The actors lethargically played a cassette tape and went through the motions of the opera "Hsueh Jenkuei's War in the West." When they got tired, they simply switched to pop music. Still dolled up in their costumes, they sang out a vocal confrontation to the flower truck troupe.

The first five years after flower trucks started showing up in temple festivals, often onlookers would ride their bicycles or motorcycles from neighboring villages. If the show was scheduled for 7:30 pm, the audience would have already begun to jockey for position in front of the stage before the clock struck 6:00. Spectators would cluster together on pig sty roofs, in low-lying trees or on the tops of sedans. "I even witnessed a rare spectacle where the roof of the cars sank in from the weight of the crowds, and the pig sty caved in," Huang Wen-po said, reminiscing on the flower truck's bygone glories. In 1989 Tainan County's Keliao Temple held a special large-scale religious festival, and the temple officials boasted that they would invite all the strippers in the province to come join in the celebration. It was estimated that on that day, 15 separate flower truck companies had recruited more than 200 strippers, each competing to show herself the fairest of them all.

Scanning the audience in front of the stage, we found that their ages varied from over 80 to less than eight months old. Housewives and their husbands, misses, misters, papas and mamas and their teenage children all sat nonchalantly shoulder to shoulder.

"Come, come! Sit in front. The next show features 'Little Cutey,' who has received special training in Southeast Asia. Everybody move in closer and take a better look. But I also ask all of you to watch only with your eyes. Please don't take photos." In this way, the hostess intimated that the next show would be the climax.

Devil's body, angel's face

Beside the stage a large, sturdy man stood out above the crowd. With the vision of an eagle, he observed the crowd to detect anyone with what might be taken for a professional interest. Huang Wen-po's wife informed us with a smile that once before, Huang was beaten up and had his film confiscated, due to an unskillful attempt at covert photography.

Tall and slender "Little Cutey" came onto the stage, a heavy cloak draped over her shoulders. Her body wriggled in serpentine motions. Every once in a while, she would unlatch her buttons and, walking toward the east end of the stage, flash open her cloak. Then she would walk toward the west end and flash her cloak open again. Her sophisticated and provocative dancing posture formed a sharp contrast to her childlike, unspoiled face. After she finished her second dance, she was stark naked. She took out various kinds of props and did stunts, such as lifting her legs up, smoking and swallowing knives. Mocked by the others as a "city bumpkin," I watched, ill at ease. Looking around, I saw junior high school girls who did not seem to be bothered at all. They only occasionally hid their faces behind their hands to giggle among themselves. All the young men, goaded on by peer pressure, were crammed up front, glued to the stage.

"Now our 'Little Cutey' is afraid that the audience seated in the rear won't get a clear view, so she is coming down from the stage to meet everybody. Please, everyone, look but don't touch." When the hostess finished her speech, "Little Cutey" walked down the stage, her hand held in that of a handsome male volunteer, and circled the audience one time. When she walked up to an old gentleman, she naughtily jiggled herself in front of him. Villagers laughingly exclaimed, "Grandpa won't be able to take it!" The old gent seemed to be embarrassed, not knowing whether or not to laugh. I wondered if "Little Cutey" was entertaining the audience, or they were entertaining her.

A thoroughly drunk father held out his month-old child to the dancer. He told the other villagers with a chuckle, "My son enjoys it more than I do," which triggered an explosion of laughter on and off the stage.

A song sung in the setting sun

After the X-rated performance had finished, several singers, who were rushed to the locale by special delivery, came onstage and began to sing. The audience simply got bored. Being modern people well versed in the wonders of karaoke, they went onto the stage and entertained themselves, as well as their friends. The crowd cheered on the local volunteers with gifts of soda pop and red envelopes. Several energetic villagers cleared out some space in front of the stage and invited the local females to dance.

Later on, a second presentation of X-rated dancing was given, and when it was over, those who had dashed home from other parts of the island began to gather in groups to drive back to from where they came. "Brother! Handsome man! Don't go away! In a minute there will be another surprise that you will never see in Taipei," the hostess said in a feminine voice, as she tried to halt the audience members who were standing up. With the congregation diminishing and the wind blowing harder, more people picked up their chairs and left.

Throughout the history of temple festival evening celebrations, Taiwanese opera and puppet shows first dominated the scene, until they were replaced by open-air movies. Finally, flower trucks took command. Among the common people, there will always be new inventions to satisfy a craving for entertainment. The once huge flower truck shows apparently no longer drive people crazy. "Let's go! That's about all there is to this show," said Huang Wen-po. He and his wife had long since grown weary of it.

As I looked back from faraway at the colorful neon-lit flower truck glowing in the open field, there arose in me a weird and ghostly feeling. The dancing girls were still doing their best to stir up the crowd. The light and the music, knowing no fatigue, continued to blare out into the night. There is no telling what the next wave will be that replaces these flower truck shows, which have been such a thorn in the authorities' flesh.

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Face to face with nude dancing girls, who knows how the temple gods feel?

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While the adults stare transfixed at the show going on atop the flower truck, innocent kids are frolicking off to one side.