Taipei Children Arts Festival

In order to do a good job, one must have good tools. ~ a Chinese saying~ 工欲善其事，必先利其器

It was a fruitful and meaningful day, despite Typhoon Saola was approaching Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rainfall, to conclude the month of July!

I got up early to attend two lectures on basic and advance Nanguan from 9:10 till 12:30 at Taiwan Music Center. Many thanks must go to my friend and neighbor who introduced Nanguan to me three months ago. She plays pipa very well, and she encourages me to become a Nanguan singer. I gradually become interested in the ancient genre of slow, gentle, delicate music in Quanzhou dialect.

The more I listen to Nanguan by Wang Xinxin, the more I enjoy its melodic grace and elegance, the more I wish to visit Quanzhou, the birthplace of nanguan in the 7th century between the Sui and Tang eras. At the Taiwan Music Center, I learned to read the Nanguan music notations in addition to gongchepu. And I saw a splendid Nanguan demo featuring four higher instruments and four lower instruments by the student ensemble of Taipei National University of the Arts!

Golden Ladies met for lunch at Apple Diner at 1PM. We chatted for a couple of hours over delicious burgers and free refills of drinks. We took a lot of photos at the shop with pictures of the 30s on the walls. Two big classic photos of Audrey Hepburn were the main attractions. Irene was eager to hone her photographic skills with her newly brought Lumix LX5. Lydia, Kate, and I were delighted to pose as her models.

In the afternoon, we took a walk in the rain to Taipei Children Arts Festival at the Treasure Hill. Kate and Irene wore one-piece summer dresses with exposed arms and legs to invite the invasion of the hungry mosquitoes. I should have warned them in advance about the unfriendly insects I ran into when I investigated the Treasure Hill the previous Monday.

The Treasure Hill was closed on Mondays. The security guard at the gate was friendly to tell me the history of the Treasure Hill when there were no visitors. The Treasure Hill Temple was built in late 17th century before the Lungshan Temple. The small community of cascade houses built on the hill by Japanese and Mainlanders were turned into an artist village. While listening to the security guard's interpretation with interest, I was attacked by numerous mosquitoes to suck as much of my blood as possible all over my arms and legs.

Among a flock of young mothers and small kids in search of the treasures at the Treasure Hill, four golden ladies had fun our way! Irene took many splendid photos on a wet typhoon day. As Irene is having more and more confidence in persuading her models to pose in front of her camera, I'm sure in no time she will become a terrific life story teller with her Lumix LX5 in hand.