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Water in Taiwan’s Folk Rituals and Culture

The Han Chinese were originally a continental farming people, but a few centuries ago pioneers among them ventured across the “Black Ditch” of the Taiwan Strait to live on a mountainous island surrounded by ocean, with fast-flowing rivers that were prone to flooding. All across Taiwan, a uniqu......

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Water, Water, Everywhere—

The Water City of Taipei

In his book Shuicheng Taipei (“The Water City of Taipei”), author Shu Guozhi describes the dense concentration of waterways and ubiquity of wet rice paddies in 1970s Taipei. “Women did laundry at the sides of streams that could be found everywhere. When out and about, people walked alongside r......

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Learning from the Gaoping River

On a map, the Gaoping River and its tributaries look like blue veins on a leaf. From its source on Yushan, the Gaoping River crosses 23 townships before finally emptying into the Taiwan Strait. Together with its five main tributaries—the Laonong, Qishan, Zhuokou, Ailiao, and Meinong rivers—it ......

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The Glittering Ponds of the Taoyuan Plateau

Flying into or out of Taoyuan International Airport, if you look out the window during takeoff or landing you will see numerous large ponds interspersed among the green fields. This is the liquid landscape of the Taoyuan Plateau, and the reason why Taoyuan is known as “the land of a thousand ponds.”......

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Waterfront Poetics:

Aquatic Environments in Taiwan

Water is the cradle of life. Rivers were the lifeblood of ancient civilizations across the world. We feel a deep-seated urge to connect with water. We tame rivers and create aquatic environments around us. From Taipei’s historic Dadaocheng Wharf and Tainan’s new public park, The Spring, to the......