If you use Google translate to know the Chinese of ‘three hundred’, you will get sānbǎi (三百) [Filipino: san-bay] where sān means 3 and bǎi means 100 put it together it means 3 x 100 which is 300. I’ve been here for over 300 days and it’s the start of another cycle in my Taiwan Day Adventures. Every 100 days is like a new chapter in my stay in Taiwan. Three good friends left Taiwan after finishing their internship and I was alone again. Nevertheless, they were part of my Taiwan Day 200 (Liǎngbǎi) series. People come and go but my stories of my adventures and misadventures in Taiwan will always continue. Another 100 days, another cycle, another chapter…
It was a weekend and I need to go somewhere again. I only have 4 hours of sleep due to the take-home final exam in Statistics and I still feel weak. I need to go somewhere just within Taipei so I can go back easily to the dorm and take a rest. I chose to see the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum. It was a nice place to learn about Taiwanese folk arts.
I went there via the MRT Red Line. From the Shuanglian station I walk for about about 1 kilometer to find the 4 story building along Xi-Ning N. Road. The price of a regular ticket is 80 NTD but since I am a student I only paid 50 NTD. My destination was in Dadaocheng area which I visited in Taiwan Day 152 (Retro Taipei) so the place was familiar to me.
After paying I went directly to the second floor and from there I learned about the ‘one-man puppet theater’ in China. It was a form of entertainment in China in the old days where a man carrying a large box containing puppets and other paraphernalia builds his own small stage and uses many puppets to entertain the audience. There is also a DIY area in the second floor where you can experience having your own glove puppet theatre opera. A little bit corny but I just took the chance to take pictures.
An interesting area in the second floor was the ‘Ugly Parlour’. Asian puppets in the old days were ugly. During a performance, the appearance of an ugly puppet usually brings laughter to the audience especially when an ugly puppet do things like limping instead of walking in the stage. An ugly puppet or puppet with physical defects was associated to being funny in puppet theaters.
The third floor of the museum boasts the modern of area of puppet theaters and there was a time when puppet shows become popular in Taiwanese television. Creative stories were made to keep the audience from watching the show. The museum also have collections of puppets used in those TV shows and in contrast to the puppets in the old days which were made of wood, the puppets used in the television shows were made of plastic.
My favorite of all the collections in the museum was the shadow puppets. I felt that I was like a child again trying to pose with shadow puppets in my hands within 10 seconds before my camera flashes its light. Upstairs in the fourth floor was an exhibit about ghost puppets and hell. I deleted some of the photos that I have taken since they were creepy. Up to now I’m still bothered by the goat puppet that I saw.
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| Vietnamese water puppet |
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| string puppets from around the world |
Outside the fourth floor was the rooftop area and there was a pool where I experienced having fun with Vietnamese water puppets. I went down to the first floor to check the marionettes displayed there. Marionettes from different countries were displayed each portraying the culture of the country that they came from.
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| at the workshop in the first floor of the museum |
The highlight of my visit was an interview to a staff in the Puppet Workshop in the museum. His name was ‘A-ne.’ I don’t know if I really spelled his name correctly but I have videos while interviewing him and he showed me how to move and manipulate the wooden marionette and a Chinese glove puppet. I consider A-ne as a real puppet master.
An-le showing how to move a string puppet.
I tried to manipulate the wooden marionette and I also have a photo of with it. I also tried the Asian glove puppet. A-ne told me that I need to increase the angle created by my index finger and my middle finger so that my glove puppet won’t look like that its head was bent to the side. Haha! He told me that he performs stretching exercises for his index and middle finger and that is why the movements of the glove puppet was perfect.
To summarize, my first trip in my Taiwan Day Sānbǎi series was a good hands-on experience. The shadow puppet, the glove puppet and the marionette, with practice I will become a real master of these Asian puppets.
THINGS TO DO IN TAIPEI
Sakura Series - Taiwan
2024 Forecast
Taipei 101 first flowers
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Taipei Flower Test Center
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Broadwood Park
Sunshine Sports Park kawazu sakura
Wuling Farm (武陵農場)
SYS kawazu sakura
Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village
CKS Memorial Hall
Shibafen Yoshino Sakura
Hope River
Dongfang Temple
Tianyuan Palace
Neicou Stream Trail
Orange Garden Cafe
Yangming Park Visitor Information Center
Yangming Park Service Center Bus Stop
Huashan Road
Qianshan Park
Zhongshan Hall Entrance
Tenglong Sakura Farm
Flower Test Center Shōwa Sakura
Neihu Creek Trail
Shulin Land Office
Xióng Kōng Cherry Blossom Forest
Lung Yen Sakura Forest
Yangming Park cherry stream
Yangming Park fountain
CKS Memorial Hall Tairyō sakura
Wugu District Tianyi Road
CKS Memorial Hall yaesakura
Loving Farm
Yong Long Farm
Zhongbaling Sakura Road
Sun Link Sea
Tai'an Police Station
Cherry Hill Slope
Hsinchu Park
Taipei 101
Kāng Gào Kēng Creek
New Garden City
Broadwood Park
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Alishan Ranger Station
Alishan House
Alishan Police Station
Alishan Forest Railway
Alishan Station
Alishan Entrance
Alishan Gou Hotel
Alishan Magnolia Garden
Wulai tour
Wun Chang Elementary School
Bishanyan
Sanzhi Sansei Trail
Sakura Series - Taiwan
Nei Cuo Stream
Orange Garden Cafe
Sansei Trail
Tenglong Sakura Farm
Yangming Park Cherry Stream
Yangming Park Fountain
Flower Test Center
Broadwood Park
New Garden City
Yinghua Park
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Yangmingshan Visitor Center
Taipei 101
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Sakura Series - Japan
Kamonyama Park
Near the Nippon Maru Memorial Park
Shinko Park
Minato-mirai 21 area
Tokyo Tech Suzukakedai Campus
Onda River
Tenryuji
Byodoin
Kiyomizudera
Himuro shrine and Yakushi-ji Temple
Hōryū-ji Temple
Nara Park attractions
Tokyo Tech Ookayama Campus
Sumida River
Tsuruma Park
Gion
Maple Series
Taipei Aowanda
Shimen Dam
Alishan
Aowanda
Shanlinxi
Taoyuan Valley Garden
Fushoushan Farm
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| Yehliu to Jiufen? Yehliu to Shifen? Cheaper than yellow taxis |
The "Taipei kong mahal" (My beloved Taipei)
Always in my heart
MRT birdman
Valentine's Day
Tulips Festival
2018 Taipei Lantern Festival
City of Azaleas
Linji Huguo Temple
Nanjichang Night Market
Gudetama Chef restaurant
Dalongdong Bao'an Temple
Shilin hollyhocks
Ningxia Night Market
Ximending graffiti
Discovery Center of Taipei
Chunghwa Postal Museum
Double-Decker Bus
Shilin Cold Balls
Jingimoo
GomanMango
mud volcanic ice
Fire and Ice Dumpling
Opium Fen-Yuan
Ichiran Ramen
Liu Shandong Beef Noodles
hydrangea flowers
National Palace Museum
Other attractions in Taipei
Taipei on a budget
Japanese buildings
Dāoxiāomiàn beef noodles
Presidential Office Building
Yongkang St. and Elephant Mountain
CKS and SYS Hall
City tour
Beitou ramen
MRT Monopoly Game
Winter city tour
Zhicheng Park
Shilin Plum Blossom
Art museums
Shopping in Taipei
Summer desserts
Qingtiangang
Qixingshan hiking
2015 Calla lily
2016 Calla lily
Beitou tour
Beitou-Zhuzihu tour
NTU
Confucius Temple
2015 Dadaocheng Festival
Puppet Museum
Fantasy Ice World
2016 Bread Show
Strawberry picking
2015 Rose Garden
Modern Toilet
Shilin Night Market
NASA Exhibit
Raohe Night Market
Longshan Temple
2013 Taipei Zoo
Maokong Gondola
Lupin flowers
Taipei 101 day visit
Taipei 101 night visit
Tiger Mountain
Din Tai Fung
Taipei Story House
2014 Flower Show
Chrysanthemum Show
Miramar Ferris wheel
Miniatures Museum
Archery
1600 Pandas
Wulaoguo hot pot
Upside Down House
2016 101 Fireworks
New Taipei
Tamsui Pumpkin Tunnel
Shifen Waterfall
2017 Sand Sculpture
Dragon Caves
New Taipei tour
2016 Kite Festival
Pingxi Crags
Bitou Cape
2016 Sand Sculpture
2015 Christmasland
Juming - Jinshan
Houtong - Pingxi
Sandiaoling Waterfall
Jiufen foodtrip
Guanyinshan hike
Yehliu Ocean World
2014 Kite Festival
Pingxi Rail tour
Jinguashi tour
Vigor Kobo Pineapple
British Consulate
Yehliu Geopark
2014 Sand Sculpture
Paragliding
2014 Christmasland
2014 Pingxi Lantern
firefly watching
Yingge Ceramics Street
Jiufen tour
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