Electronic Nezha Appears at Temple Festivals in Tainan and Kaohsiung
台南、高雄廟會出現「電音三太子」
Source: The Origins of the Electronic Sound Third Prince
From: Taiwan Folk Arts Research Studio
From around 2005, groups such as Beigang Prince Association and Puzih Prince Troupe began incorporating electronic and popular music into traditional-procession (陣頭) performances. The accessible, energetic style gradually became a popular street performance, subsequently appearing on major performance stages and variety TV programmes and coming to be seen as an important symbol of Taiwan’s indigenous culture.
According to members of the “Puzih Third Prince Association,” they first saw dancers Xiaomao and Xiaokun — who had won first place at a competition at the “Shiji” Club in Taoyuan — performing their self-choreographed moves on the 2004 variety programme Hot Matsu Temple (the host called the moves “taike dance”). They learned the whole routine and performed it at the 2005 Lantern Festival salt-water fireworks parade in Yanshui. The footage was captured by tourists and uploaded online, triggering a warm response, and the name “Electronic Sound Third Prince” (電音三太子) began to spread across Taiwan.
At the opening ceremony of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, thirty-two Nezha deity puppets entered wearing LED-light halos, riding modern Wheels of Fire — motorcycles — to the driving beat of “You Are My Flower.” The spectacle was electrifying; from that moment the “Electronic Sound Third Prince” swept the country and spread abroad, becoming one of the most iconic emblems of Taiwanese folk imagery.
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External Links
- Exclusive: Electronic Sound Third Prince Troupes Bet NT$100,000 on Who Is “Authentic” (TVBS)
- Dancing Through Electronic Sound: Third Space and the Cultural Imagination of the Electronic Sound Third Prince (Liao Yung-chao)
- Who Created the Electronic Sound Third Prince? Puzih and Beigang Dispute Legitimacy (TVBS)