臺北市新住民專區網站英文版

Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs press release

Released by the Population Policy Division 

Released date: January 17, 2023

Contact: Chief Wu Chung-hsin, or Ms. Lo Hsiang-yun

Telephone:1999 ext. 6258 or 6375; 0966590813; 0935265759

  The 2023 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taipei will be held from February 5 to February 19 in East Taipei, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, and Xinyi District's shopping area. Among all the areas, the most cultural exotic lanterns are in the  Fount of Light Display Zone located in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs has invited several new immigrant artists and local Taiwanese artists to collaborate on creating unique lanterns that reflect the experiences, emotions, and traditional stories of new immigrants living in Taipei and their hometowns.

  The biggest difference of this year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival are the themes of "coexistence", "co-prosperity" and "co-creation” which served as the concepts of all the new immigrant lanterns. Linked together by our expat experiences and our native foods, we connected Taipei and the world, and coexisted. Here We Are, Grow the Taipei Tastes, and the emotions of New Year. Earth artist Wang Wen-chih chose the theme of Here We Are and invited several new immigrants to participate in the design process and create a 7-meter-high bamboo woven space that represents the mingling of various new immigrant cultures, The bamboo stacks and extends, symbolizing the various challenges and experiences in life. The weaving of colorful fabrics in red, yellow, green, and blue, resembles how new immigrants have to cross the ocean to create a different life in Taiwan. Paper sculpture artist Cheng Jo-han's work Grow the Taipei Tastes uses the image of a dining table to express the importance of taste and cuisine to local culture. The 12-meter-long iron dining table sculpture surrounding a large tree symbolizes the integration and harmony between new immigrants and Taipei City. Kidult Studio painted traditional foods of various countries on the walls of the Wanhua New Immigrants' Hall based on the theme of Lunar New Year Festival. Purple lighting is used to highlight the different exotic atmosphere during the day and at night.

  New immigrant artists, who were born in another country but grew up here, interpreted the concept of ‘co-prosperity’ through their works, including Hito Bito, A Home of One‘s Own, and The River of Memory. Hito Bito, a collaborative work by Japanese artist Daisuke Nagatomo and his wife Chan Ming-ni, features a structure in the shape of the Chinese character "ren" (人), which symbolizes how people rely on and support each other. The work is composed of two small "ren" characters that converge to form a larger "ren," reflecting the artists' own experience of settling down and forming a family in Taipei. A Home of One‘s Own is co-created by French artist Margot Guillemot and her husband Chiu Chieh-sen. It uses suitcases to symbolize the homesickness of every new immigrant who left their hometown and moved to Taiwan. At the same time, the open suitcases are assembled to form a house, representing finding a new sense of belonging that is uniquely their own. Filipino artist Mark Lester Lugay Reyes, whose official status is a foreign worker, even so, nothing can stop him from creating beauty in the factory and achieving his dream of becoming an artist. Mark was inspired by the Filipino tradition of Bayanihan, which refers to the community practice of helping each other to move a house. Mark  collaborated with the Light Arts LAB to create a lantern called The River of Memory, sharing with us beautiful stories of the Filipino people's unity and spirit of coming together for the common good.

  About Taipei and Under the Stars are created through co-creation workshops. Through workshop activities, new immigrant families are invited to create together with the artists using their own cultural backgrounds. The art team, Floatel Studio, and the Light Arts LAB utilize design and light movements to turn unique patterns and handwritten texts created by new immigrants into the main features of the lantern artworks. In addition, the Department of Civil Affairs has also designed an interesting interactive filter for each of these two sets of lanterns for people to take pictures and check in. Put on the filter and you will see rabbits donning traditional patterns from various countries and writings falling from the sky, providing an alternative experience for lantern viewers.

  The New Immigrant Lantern Area in the Fount of Light Display Zone brought together artists of different nationalities to create artworks under the concept of  "coexistence", "co-prosperity" and "co-creation”. Although they speak different languages and have different cultures, they can still gather together, enjoy food, build families, travel together, be brave, chase dreams, and sow the unique flavors of Taipei together.