aeeble

Wanhe Temple was founded in the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1684) at the initiative of Zhang Guo, former Zhejiang Dinghai commander-in-chief. Twelve clans—Zhang, Liao, Jian, Lai, Huang, Jiang, He, Yang, Dai, Liu, Chen, and Lin—pooled funds for its construction and named it Wanhe (“Myriad Harmonies”). On the 5th floor of the Wanhe Cultural Center, the “Mawei (Sesame & Ramie) Culture Hall” was established on 24 October 2004 by the Wanhe Cultural & Educational Foundation under the guidance of the Council for Cultural Affairs. It is Taichung’s first community-run local museum. Its five themed areas trace the history of Nantun District, chronicle the golden age of jute, house prized collections, interpret the Mawei culture in Nantun, and host a creative gallery. Positioned as a local-history and folk-culture museum, the hall opens on the 1st and 15th of every lunar month and on weekends, with docent-volunteers providing tours. The basement of the Wanhe Cultural Center is a restaurant; the ground floor houses offices, the 2nd floor a conference hall, the 3rd a library, the 4th a relics gallery, and the 5th the Mawei Culture Hall. Facing Wanhe Temple’s forecourt and backed by the Litoudian Stream, the imposing edifice soars elegantly. A sixth-floor “observation deck” crowns the roof, offering westward vistas of the Dadu Mountain mists, eastward views over downtown Taichung, and a full sweep of old Nantun Street—an idyllic panorama steeped in poetry. Time-honored and incense-rich, Wanhe Temple still preserves Taiwan’s only hereditary “clan-opera” festival, a tradition nearly two centuries old. In 1825, on the 21st day of the 3rd lunar month, the first “character-clan” performances began: Zhangzhou opera on day 1, Guangdong (Chaozhou, Jiaying, Huizhou) opera on the 22nd, Quanzhou opera on the 24th, Tingzhou opera on the 25th, followed by operas for each surname, thanksgiving operas, and martial plays. Running one to two months, this sequence has continued unbroken through every generation and remains a vital local folk celebration.