Letter from Taipei

On the roof of the building, ornamental dragons dance like a raging ocean. Located in the center of Hsinchu city, the temple is only a few kilometers from the highly contested Taiwan Strait. Upon entering, one must pass by two protective demons with menacing faces, one red and the other green, to reach the statue of Mazu, the goddess of the sea. It was still early, but the first devotees were already there to light incense sticks and show their devotion to Taiwan's most popular religious figure.

Behind a large display case, the pink-faced statue was dressed in a robe and gold headdress. Smaller effigies were arranged all around, of which one, prominently displayed, has been provided by the original Mazu temple, just across the strait, only 180 kilometers away as the crow flies. It stands in a different political world, with China threatening to one day take, by force if necessary, the democratic island that resists it.

Political differences did not deter the temple director from visiting China just last year, even though he knows these trips are viewed with suspicion by his government. He carried the statue on a visit to a temple in Tianjin, a major city in northeastern China, with a group of 26 devotees. Giving only his last name, Lin, he recounted how he had to book a plane ticket for the statue and sit next to it. For Taipei, it is evident that these processions on the mainland convey a message favorable to the eventual absorption of the island by Communist China. "Religion is religion, and politics is politics," 55-year-old Lin said, dismissing this.

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