Yoshino Cherry Blossoms (吉野櫻)

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It's sakura season here in Taiwan and the blossoms are currently blooming all over the country! In my last post about the Taiwan Cherry Blossoms (山櫻花) I posted about a type of cherry blossom that is endemic to Taiwan. Today I'm going to post about an imported variety of cherry blossom that comes from Japan and is probably the much more popular version. 

Taiwan has a few different types of cherry blossoms which bloom between February and April every year - The type of sakura I'm posting about today are known as "Yoshino Cherries" (吉野櫻) and are probably the most well-loved of all the species of cherry blossoms in Taiwan. 

During this time of the year, it is normal to see your Taiwanese friends posting photos on social media from Japan where they go to specifically see the blossoms while others visit hot spots like Alishan (阿里山), Yangming Mountain (陽明山), Wuling Farm (武陵農場) and Danshui's Tian-Yuan Temple (天元宮) to see them taking part in a tradition known as "flower viewing" (花見).  

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As spring rolls around in Taiwan we are lucky to have a few different types of cherry blossoms, but also Peach Blossoms (桃花), Tung Blossoms (油桐花) and Taiwan's national flower the Plum Blossom (梅花) all of which create a lot of tourism for places where the blossoms are growing for this type of flower viewing. 

Each type of blossom has a specific purpose - Tung Blossoms are known as "Hakka flowers" and are said to represent Hakka culture while plum blossoms are the "official" flower of Taiwan and it is common to see them depicted on all sorts of government emblems as well as on the New Taiwan Dollar, the currency of Taiwan. 

Cherry blossoms on the other hand are important to Taiwan not only because of their beauty but because of Taiwan's close relationship with Japan and Japanese culture. The culture of "Hanami" (花見) which is a traditional Japanese custom of flower viewing and respecting their beauty is an activity that is just as popular in Taiwan with people of all ages as it is in Japan. This is why people travel all around the country and in some cases even travel to Japan to take part in a custom that is shared and widely respected by people in both nations. 

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Yoshino Cherry Blossoms (吉野櫻) 

There are debates as to the origin of the Yoshino Cherry, but they are believed to have originated in the Yoshino district (吉野郡) of Nara which is where they get their name. The trees are mostly ornamental and are loved for their fragrant light-pink blossoms and the manageable size of the tree.

In Japan, the trees were thought to represent clouds and thus represented the impermanent nature of life, a Buddhist concept known in Japan as "Mono no Aware" (物の哀れ) which is translated as "an empathy towards things." This concept is a reflection of the Japanese people's awareness for the reality of life and how all things, even beautiful things will eventually come to an end. 

The trees started to be imported to Taiwan during the Japanese-colonial period between 1895-1945 and from that time on the Japanese appreciation of cherry blossoms was appropriated as part of Taiwan's cultural heritage. Taiwan and Japan share a lot of cultural similarities due to the colonial period and even though that period ended over 70 years ago and isn't looked upon as an entirely positive experience, the people of Taiwan and Japan share a lot of respect for each other and Taiwan's development wouldn't have been so successful if it weren't for Japan's influence. 

That appreciation was put on display after the devastating 2011 Tohuku earthquake (東北地方太平洋沖地震) where Taiwan became the country which donated the most amount of money and resources to help those affected by the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The generosity of the Taiwanese people didn't go unnoticed and as part of their appreciation, Japan took out a full page ad in Taiwan's UDN newspaper thanking the people of the country for their solidarity and generosity during such a devastating experience. 

It was fitting that the ad displayed not only the Japanese people's gratitude for their friend and neighbour but also a cherry blossom which displayed the closeness and solidarity of the two cultures.  

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The sakura shots I'm posting today were all taken on Yangming Mountain in Taipei and I focused on the blossoms rather than landscapes. In technical terms most of the shots were taken with an aperture of f/2.8 meaning that the subject will be in focus while the backgrounds will be blurred causing an effect photographers refer to as "bokeh" and is only really achievable with certain types of lenses.

I thought that as I had posted last year landscape shots of these sakura at Tian-Yuan Temple that this year I would instead focus on the cherry blossoms themselves and let people enjoy the photos in a different way. 

If you are in Taiwan or Japan right now, it is the best time of the year to view these blossoms. If you have time make sure to use it to get out and see them. The people at Round Taiwan Round published an excellent guide of where people can see them, so check it out and enjoy one of Taiwan's most beautiful flower seasons! 

If you have any questions or comments feel free to comment below or get in touch with me in the contact section below!

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

Thousand-armed Guanyin (千手觀音)

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A few weeks ago I went on a photowalk around Guandu (關渡) with some photographer friends and it led me back to Guandu Temple (關渡宮), one of my favourite temples in Taipei. I've already blogged about the temple before, so today being that it just so happens that it is Guanyin's birthday - I'm going to share a few photos of my favourite shrine in the temple and explain it a little bit as well as a funny experience that happened while at the temple.

The day of our photowalk it was forecast to rain, it had already rained for the entire of month of March and the weather was having a major effect on people's moods. Billy, the leader of the photowalk group thought about cancelling it the day before, but we all decided that we shouldn't let the weather get the best of us and we went anyway.

When we arrived at the temple, it hadn't started to rain, so I helped to lead people around the temple showing them the highlights and discussing random things about its construction. When we got to the Guanyin shrine, one of my favourite Buddhist shrines in all of Taiwan, one of the photowalkers asked me why there were two stone elephants guarding the door rather than the lions that most temples have. Truthfully I couldn't answer the question and I thought it was a bit strange myself as I had noticed earlier that they were designed in the Thai-style.

So instead of standing around and thinking about it, I walked into the shrine room and approached the attendant to ask her if she knew. She replied to me: "I don't understand your Chinese" (我聽不懂你的中文), so I repeated myself more slowly thinking that my Beijing accent and pace of speaking were too much for her.

After repeating my question in a very slow and clear manner she replied to me in broken Mandarin that she couldn't understand and asked if I could speak Taiwanese. I expect this kind of thing is common in the south of Taiwan, but in Taipei it's quite rare to find a local that can't speak Mandarin. 

She eventually found a young woman who could speak Taiwanese and I asked her the question and she translated it for me.

The reply was: "I've no idea, ask someone else." Mystery unsolved. 

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The Guanyin shrine room at Guandu temple is one of my favourite for a few reasons - The first is because it is connected to a long cave which is inside of a mountain. The cave has murals along the walls telling different Buddhist stories. The shrine is at the end of the cave and there is a balcony that takes you out to the side of the mountain overlooking the Danshui river.

The shrine itself is of the Thousand-Armed Guanyin (千手觀音菩薩) and to me is expertly crafted and the lighting in the room makes it look amazing. I can see however that it might come across as scary to some (she's holding various weapons) but if you really understand the purpose and story behind this depiction you might really appreciate the beauty of it -  

The topic of "Guanyin" can be a bit confusing to some, because in countries that practice Buddhism, this specific "Buddha" is depicted in a lot of different ways and you might not ever know who you're looking at. The name "Guanyin" (觀自在) comes from the original"Avalokiteśvara" (སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་) who is referred to as the "Buddha of Compassion" and literally means "the lord who looks down on sound" (those who are suffering). The purpose of this specifc Buddha is to show compassion and remain on Earth and work to alleviate the suffering of human-kind. Today, it is said that the 'Buddha of Compassion' walks around in human form and is the nobel peace prize laureat known around the world as the Dalai Lama. 

As for the differentiation in iconography between different traditions, the best explanation is that over history, the Buddha of Compassion having returned so many times reappeared as a male and a female. This is why you will find that this specific Buddha appears in different forms in different countries and in some cases may even appear androgynous. Here in East Asia, Avalokiteśvara is typically depicted in the form of Guanyin (觀世音菩薩) and for Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese Buddhists she is a popular figure of worship.

The story behind this specific statue of Guanyin comes from a popular Buddhist myth (南海觀音全撰) that tells of a conversation between Guanyin and Amitābha Buddha (阿彌陀佛) - two of the most important Buddhas - where the Buddha of Compassion complained about the never-ending mission that he/she was on. Despite all the hard work that was done over countless lifetimes, humans were still miserable and suffering. Amitābha hearing this transformed Guanyin's body into one with eleven heads (to hear the cries of humanity) and one thousand arms which would help to aid in helping to alleviate the suffering of humanity.

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I'm neither a Buddhist, nor am I religious, but the story of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara stands out to me as a westerner for a few reasons. The first being that I come from a culture that believes in a God that demands worship, adoration and adherence to a set of rules. In the other case we have a god-like figure (Buddha's are not actually gods) whose entire purpose is to help humanity realize it's full potential and live a happy life free of suffering. To me they seem almost the polar opposite of each other - one demands adherence and love while the other asks for nothing and works tirelessly to improve your life. If I were looking a religion (I'm not, no knocks on my door please) I might actually lean more to the latter as it seems a bit more genuine. 

The next reason is that in Buddhism, gender is not an obstacle in attaining enlightenment or for becoming a Buddha. It does not matter to Buddhists if a female becomes one of the most prominent figures in the religion. I can appreciate a system of beliefs that does not limit a person's individual potential based solely on their gender or their sexuality. The world would be an infinitely better place today if women were given equal opportunity to include themselves and lead in all facets of life as well as in philosophical debates rather than the age-old system of patriarchy that has been in place. 

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If you have a chance to visit Guandu temple, make sure to check out this shrine and take a few minutes to enjoy the craftsmanship that was put into constructing this giant statue. No matter what your opinion of religion, you have to appreciate the human intellect and skill that went into constructing it and that's basically the attitude I take with me when I visit temples with my camera in hand. I respect the human ingenuity, skill and care that was taken to make these giant museums of Taiwanese art.

If you have any questions, comments, or corrections, please feel free to comment below or send an email through the contact section. 

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Nanjichang Community (南機場社區)

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A few weeks ago I attended a photowalk held in the Nanjichang community of Taipei coordinated by TC Lin, a prominent Taiwan street photographer, author, musician, filmmaker and one of the few foreign-born residents of Taiwan to become a naturalized citizen. TC is well-known in the photography circles in Taiwan as well as abroad having exhibited his photos all over the world.

As a street photographer, TC has witnessed the modernization of the country over the past few decades and has a portfolio of amazing photos which have documented this beautiful country and its people. Given his relationship with the country and the community where he works, he was the ideal person to lead a large international event like this with the ability and experience necessary to relay important information to all the participants involved.

The photowalk was planned with the cooperation of the Taipei City Chung-Cheng Community College (台北市中正區大學) where TC teaches as well as the local borough warden (方荷生里長) and his office which gave participants an introduction to the history of the community as well as unfettered access to assist in preserving a visual record of a historic Taipei community that may succumb to urban renewal and city beautification despite the protests of its residents. 

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The Nanjichang Community (南機場社區) which is slated for urban renewal or reconstruction (whichever you prefer) is one of Taipei's first modern 'high-rise' communities completed in 1964 and was built on the site of the Japanese colonial-era's "Southern Taipei Airport" which was reclaimed between 1945-1949 after the Nationalist party took control of Taiwan.

The community which is situated in Taipei's Chung-Cheng district (中正區) was built by the KMT as a national housing project for members of the ROC armed forces and upon completion became Taipei's largest military dependents community (眷村) and at the time was considered a "model" compared to the shoddy military dependents villages that were constructed throughout the rest of the country in the early 1950's. 

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Nanjichang is most well-known these days for its night market (南機場夜市) which is not particularly a large one by Taipei standards, but one that sells a lot of popular local dishes. The people who originally settled in the Nanjichang apartments were mostly members of the military and low level civil servants who fled from China with the Kuomintang after the Chinese Civil War (國共內戰), so a lot of the food sold at the night market are local delicacies from that country.

The night market is one small strip of road and has quite a few vendors who just set up shop on what was once an extremely wide road. The market is well-known with the residents of the city, but not a huge draw for tourists like some of the city's other night markets which are close to Taipei's MRT system which means that it has been able to remain quite traditional for the most part. 

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Section One (第一期) 

The community was constructed in three different sections with the largest section consisting of ten different five storey apartment blocks and the second and third section being enclosed communities that have windows facing each other with a courtyard (中庭) in the middle. The community was planned to be an exclusive one, much like a lot of other military dependent villages so it would come equipped with schools, medical facilities, markets, restaurants, etc. 

I found Section One (第一期) most interesting because of the commotion surrounding the ten buildings. The night market runs through them and there is a lot of activity on the first floors where there are often businesses and restaurants. I was impressed with the design of the buildings as they were all connected by central spiral staircases (飛天旋轉梯) which reminded me of some of the staircases you'd see while walking down the street in Montreal.

When the buildings were constructed they were considered the cutting edge of western architecture - sadly though the spiral staircases never really caught on anywhere else in Taiwan.

I spent the most of my time on the photowalk with a few other photographers exploring the buildings in section one and I was interested to find that the residents had taken it upon themselves over the years to expand the size of their apartment on their own sometimes more than once. These expansions would be highly illegal anywhere else in the city and are also extremely unsafe, but the residents used a bit of their own ingenuity to improve the place they called home. It is really a miracle that Taiwan's frequent earthquakes or typhoons haven't caused these expansions to collapse.

The reason this outward expansion was necessary is because each apartment was originally only about 26-40 square meters each (8-12坪) making them a tight fit if you have a family. I live in a two bedroom apartment by myself that is 28坪 (92 square meters) and I often feel a bit cramped, so I can't even imagine how the residents of these buildings live. 

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Section Two (第二期) 

Section Two (第二期) of the apartment complex is also quite interesting as it is a different style of building and the way it was set up makes it look a bit intimidating to outsiders. It is a self-contained courtyard-style building and has restaurants, a general store, a temple and other businesses within it.

If you venture upstairs in the residential area you are going to find dark hallways and really strange odours that I seriously haven't smelled since my time in China. It was actually a bit creepy walking around the residential area and (if you notice in the photos below) the hallways are full of stuff which is a reflection of the residents inability to really expand the size of their apartment outwards like the residents in second one could. 

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Section Three (第三期) of the complex is a little bit like section two in terms of its construction but the major difference is that the residents of this section have somehow marketed their courtyard-style building to wedding photographers and filmmakers who pay for usage.

Considering that the residents of this section are accustomed to photographers paying for the privilege to shoot inside the complex, they were quite opposed to allowing us into the complex if they weren't getting a cut.

Despite having passes to give us access to the buildings, it was recommended that we not bother with section three to save some headaches. Curiosity however got the best of a few of us and we meandered into the building to see what was so special about it but tried to stay respectful of the residents by not exploring too much or shooting very many photos. 

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Whoops! I took a quick shot of section three! 

If you add up all three sections of the Nanjichang community there are 1264 households and currently over 2000 residents. Where the community was once considered a model of modernity, it is now considered a blight on the city for its slum-like conditions and is mostly occupied by low-income families posing an issue for the city government which has made several unpopular attempts to come up with a solution to relocate the residents of the community and construct new housing for them.

This urban renewal issue has caused headaches for former mayor Hau Lung-Bin (郝龍斌) and current mayor Ko Wen-Jie (柯文哲) who have made plans to reconstruct public housing for the residents of the community within the next decade - however nothing concrete has been decided and residents have been reluctant to relocate or accept the city government's conditions.

The borough warden who himself has been a resident of Nanjichang for the last fifty years and serving as warden for almost twenty has led the charge against the city governments proposals and has worked hard to improve the lives of the people living within his community. The job of a borough warden (里長) is usually quite cushy and doesn't really require a lot of work - Mr. Fang (方荷生) on the other hand is completely different and I don't doubt that he has many sleepless nights worrying about the future of the residents of his little community. He was busy on the day of the photowalk running back and forth between meetings, but from what we learned, he has been extremely important in taking care of the residents of the community, especially the elderly and their medical needs as well as residents who are prone to getting themselves in trouble by teaching them trades and how to live responsibly. 

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What will the future be like? 

The future of the Nanjichang Community is up in the air and while the residents and civic groups might not like the city governments plans, time is running out on one of Taipei's oldest residential communities and they may not be able to resist modernization too much longer.

Residential conflicts are not a new thing in Taiwan and tensions between the people and the government often flare up. I just hope that the eventual resolution to this problem is best for all parties involved. As a photographer, I hope that the images I captured on the day of the photowalk help to add to the library of photos online that will preserve the memory of this distinct Taiwanese community.

Taipei Nooks - History of Nanjichang (Chinese) 

TC Lin (林道明) - The Nanjichang Photography Event 

Taipei Times - Capturing the faces of urban decay

This post ultimately required quite a bit of translation and research - If you have any corrections, criticisms or general comments, feel free to post down below or send me an email through the contact section on the menu below. Thanks! 

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)