TAINAN: Hopping vampires from China and disembodied flying mind and organs from Thailand have tempted hordes of people to an exhibition in Taiwan, scandalising religious groupings who have called for the show’s cancellation.
Ticket sales had to be temporarily hanging twice on starting day to avoid overcrowding inside the Tainan Artwork Museum on the island’s south-western coast, with thousands waiting in-line for a chance to view the gory display.
The show features traditional artefacts, artworks and pop lifestyle about the afterlife in various Asian cultures, along with much of the screen borrowed from a People from france museum.
The main attraction is three life-size depictions associated with Chinese hopping vampires – reanimated corpses whose stiffened limbs mean they can only move by jumping along – with visitors lining as much as imitate their grasping, outstretched hands.
“I expected many people to come, but not that it would be bursting with packed areas, ” Lin Yu-chun, the museum’s director, told AFP.
Lin said the particular COVID-19 pandemic got made discussions associated with mortality more prominent in Taiwanese society over the last few years, even though it is generally a taboo subject in Chinese culture.
“Many of us have been straight impacted and have had to face death, ” she said.
“I have never noticed that many people right here, not since the outbreak started, ” mentioned a vendor surnamed Su whose shaved ice stall can be beside the museum.
“The line must have been at least 1km long, ” the girl added.
As soon as inside, visitors can see depictions of spirits from Thailand : such as krasue, a bodyless female ghoul whose glowing viscera hang below a floating head : as well as drawings of Japanese underworld mood and works from Taiwanese artists.
“Asian ghosts tend to be feminine, there are more ghosts which are feminine, ” Lin described, whereas “western ghosts tend to be stern-looking like the vampire”.
Though the show has interested swathes of the public, it has alarmed spiritual groups.
The Christian church in northern Taiwan criticised the exhibit in order to was first announced plus called for it to be axed, saying on-line that it “defile(d) the nation and people”, local media reported.
Other groups, which includes some Taoist brow ones, warned it was spreading superstition.
Local media documented the museum acquired prepared 1, 500 protective charms to provide out to show guests to ward off bad luck.
But Tony a2z Lyu, a policeman in his twenties who have visited the same day as AFP, stated the show got allowed him to reflect.
“I will try not to perform bad things from now on because of the fear (of going to hell), inch Lyu laughed.
Zora Sung, 25, a hospital lab technician from capital city Taipei, mentioned she was “moved and felt just a little touched”.
“Hell is also a part of the west we need to try to understand, ” she said.
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