If you want to see a bullfight, you don't have to travel to distant Spain. The Bullfight chen in temples is just as fierce and exciting, except without the blood--it's a G-rated bovine battle suitable for the whole family.

It's the season of spring rain and long spring grass. Afternoon.

Two farmers have finished their day's planting, and, as they let their bulls free to graze, they doze off. The two bulls are happily munching away on the grass, but they're careless for an instant and the sharp tips of their horns run into each other. Being "bullheaded," they immediately take to fighting. This wakes up the two farmers, who rush to put a stop to things. In the confusion, however, they trample all over the rice seedlings the other one has just planted. What had been a fight of bull against bull and man against bull is now a chaotic struggle of man against man and bull against man. The anarchical duel brings the whole village out to watch.

Before mechanical tractors had replaced the traditional water buffalo, this type of event was something that everyone who had grown up in a village could remember, and it is also the creative inspiration for the Bullfight chen. Because it is the recreation of an experience of rural life, the Bullfight chen is most common in the Chianan Plain, an area dotted with rice granaries. Tainan County alone has eleven Bullfight troupes.

Because the traditional wisdom has been to make agriculture the foundation of the nation, Chinese have a relationship with the water buffalo that goes back nearly as far as history itself. As early as the Chou dynasty there was the "bull whipping" ceremony. At the Beginning of Spring festival, the emperor would lead the officials to the outskirts of the capital and there "whip" a clay model of awater buffalo, in order to signal the beginning of planting for the coming year. Depictions of bullfights appear on Han dynasty stone carvings. You could say that bullfight activities have both a long and broad tradition in villages; Szechuan and Chekiang have bullfight customs to this day.

As for when the Bullfight performing chen first arose, and as to how it evolved from the whipping of the spring bull or from real fights between bulls, just as with other folk traditions there is no documentary record. The Taiwan Bullfight chen which has been around the longest is the rural community troupe belonging to Ching-chi Temple in Tawan, Hsuehchia Township, Tainan County. It is nick-named the "Tawan Bulls," and was founded in the early years after retrocession by farmers Yang Shih-liao and Wang Chih-shan.

The earliest village Bullfight troupes used water buffalo, but most professional chen today use the common Chinese ox. Why would there be a difference? "We plant flooded rice paddies, and use water buffalo, so what you see is naturally the water buffalo," says Lin Jui-liang of Liuhuang Village, Wanluan Rural Township, who performs in his rural community's Bullfight chen. Shih Wen-chan, director of the "Taishan Folk Arts Troupe" --which boasts the largest number of Bullfight chen (six "oxen" making up three chen)--responds, "The Chinese ox is more 'savage,' and more naturally combative, so we use the Chinese ox for fighting." One approach reflects life, the other reason.

The performing routine of the Bullfight chen is quite simple. Offstage there are bells and drums for accompaniment, while the main props are two bull costumes which use bamboo or rattan for the skeleton, covered by a blue or gray cloth for a water buffalo or a brown cloth for a Chinese ox. As in the Lion Dance, the bull's part is played out by two actors. The farmers are done up with bamboo rain hats, pants rolled up high, whips in hand, and the classic appearance of toilers of the soil. In fact, since most of the performers are farmers, there's little need for elaborate makeup -- they have that rural steadfastness and unreasoning stubbornness from the moment they appear.

Don't just look at the fact that the structure of the performance is simple--the contents are extremely vigorous and free, and different stories are spun out for different occasions, with a great deal of creativity. At a wedding, a "love story" is performed. Perhaps it describes how the bull and cow fall madly in love, but what to do?--the parents (owners) are opposed! They take to fighting over this, but wouldn't you know it? -- when the owners have tuckered themselves out fighting, they find that the animals have already consummated the "great event," and the only thing to do is accept the new relations and celebrate.

In temples, the boisterous "Startled Bull Story" is usually performed. The story is set on the spot, where a bull is startled and enraged by the firecrackers and music of the temple meeting. It runs amok among the crowd, with the owner pinballing off people in pursuit. Sometimes he even pulls aside an onlooker for an evaluation, so that the performers and the crowd are brought together. Of all the chen-t'ou performances, the atmosphere is usually most raucous and there is the most laughter during the playing of the Bullfight.

The audience gets to laugh it up, but the performers are exhausted. After a performance of not more than ten minutes, the farmer's clothes are usually filthy, his shoes gone, and his rain hat in shreds; the "bull" with its skeleton of rattan and skin of cloth is usually only fit to be buried after a year of combat. You can see that the fighting can be rough.

"One year, we battled a little too realistically, and some clueless police officers wanted to cart off the 'brawlers,'" laughs Shih Wen-chan. It's not only the people who get carried away; the bulls have had their share of embarrassments. "Once in Tainan, a real horse carrying the throne of the god Wang Yeh just up and ran when it came face to face with the cloth bull!"

In temple meetings the Bullfight chen is purely for fun and making merry, and no longer has any of the civilizational function of the ancient "bull whipping." However there is the case of Taiwan's only Hakka Bullfight team located in Wanluan Rural Township: While there is nothing unique about the content of their performances, after the bamboo bovine has finished in the temple, he must pass inspection from the temple Master who attaches an amulet before the animal is allowed to leave; this adds the function of expelling evil.

The fields of today's rural villages have long belonged to iron beasts of burden, and there are few chances to see real bulls duelling. Although those aren't real bulls fighting in the temple Bullfight chen, they are a splice of rural life of yesteryear. Amid the tumult of human voices and the clamor of music, the Bullfight troupes evoke the joy of the temple meeting--and memories of yesterday.

[Picture Caption]

Bull against bull, man against man, man against bull, bull against man -- battling until they fall down, battling until the bull's ear is broken off, battling until the performers are spent, battling so the audience laughs in delight. (photo by Huang Lili)

The common Chinese ox is belligerent, the water buffalo more amenable; thus there are few "water buffalo" bullfighting chen like this one. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

The bullfight performance draws its material from experiences of rural life. It's nothing strange to village kids, but is novel for children of the city. (photo by Diago Chiu)

The common Chinese ox is belligerent, the water buffalo more amenable; thus there are few "water buffalo" bullfighting chen like this one. （photo by Arthur Cheng）

The bullfight performance draws its material from experiences of rural life. It's nothing strange to village kids, but is novel for children of the city. （photo by Diago Chiu）