May 31st, Taipei, Taiwan

{Today we visited the Li Tien-lu hand puppet museum. I got my first look at the Pacific Ocean on the way. (yes, strange as it is, I saw the pacific from the Asian side before the American side). The hand puppet museum was interesting, and Jenny's dad was helpful translating. We met a student there who was practicing in the theater. He allowed us to watch him practice and then he let me try the puppet. Li Tien-lu is a famous hand puppeteer from Taiwan. Chinese hand puppetry was all but extinct when the Communists took over, but along with most of the China's national treasure and the reublican army, Chinese hand puppetry found refuge in Taiwan. Chinese hand puppeteers (or Taiwanese as the case may be) are among the finest and technically precise in the world. They accent motions with stomps of the foot. Set pieces are often more symbolic than actual, with different colors of fabric representing the emotions of the characters.

Guan Yu, one of the generals in the Shu Kingdom is whorshipped in a lot of China, and also in Taiwan. There are temples built to whorship him for his loyalty to Liu Bei. His face is characterized by being red and having a long beard. Characters in the Beijing Opera and in Chinese hand puppetry are often identified through color symbolism. Red faces are the absolute best good guys. White faces are the villians.

We also saw a Taiwanese funeral on our way to the museum. The cars in the procession were covered in yellow flowers (yellow is a mourning color).}