如果島嶼會作夢

《如果島嶼會作夢》結合近代創傷研究中對夢的觀察解析及馬祖當地的祈夢傳統，大膽提出假說：藝術家是否能扮演代夢者，採集失落的夢境同時，也召喚關於未來的想像？本計畫以當代視覺藝術、聲音採集、舞踏表演及文字攝影工作坊等多重形式，挖掘潛伏的記憶與情感，投影疊合居民對於當下及未來的思考，也為馬祖建構出屬於地方的時空檔案。
When Islands Dream extends analysis of dreams in recent trauma studies to the Dreaming Ceremony in Matsu, and boldly asks: can artists play the role of “dreamers”, collecting lost dreams while also evoking imaginations about the future? This project incorporates sound collection, dance performances, video installation and photo-cartography workshops to uncover latent memories and emotions, projecting and overlaying residents' thoughts on the present and future, and constructing a local spatial and temporal archive for Matsu.

（依照文章排序）
謝宇婷
臺北藝術大學博物館研究所碩士，臺大外文系學士。現職高雄市立美術館研究發展部助理研究員，2019年獲選國藝會策展人培力計畫。長期關注當代藝術如何回應困難歷史，以及博物館等文化機構的後殖民、開放性實踐。文章散見於《藝術認證》、《轉角國際》等。
Hsieh Yu-Ting
Master of museum studies from Taipei National University of the Arts and Bachelor of English at National Taiwan University. She currently works at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. In 2019, she was grants Curator’s Incubator Program at Museum from National Cultural and Arts Foundation. Her research interests include how contemporary arts respond to difficult history and how to decolonize and democratize museums and other cultural institutions. She publishes extensively on Art Accrediting, UDN Global and other media platforms.

龔卓軍
國立臺南藝術大學藝術創作理論研究所博士班副教授兼所長，策展人。1966年，出生於臺灣嘉義，1998年獲得國立臺灣大學哲學博士學位。2006年，發表《身體部署：梅洛龐蒂與現象學之後》一書，獲臺灣中央研究院年輕學者研究著作獎。2009年起，擔任《藝術觀點ACT》季刊主編，該雜誌並於2011年獲得國家出版獎特優獎。2013年起，策劃臺北誠品畫廊的「我們是否工作過量？（Are We Working Too Much?）」展覽，開始投入當代藝術策展工作。2017年擔任「近未來的交陪：2017蕭?國際當代藝術節」策展人，該展獲得台新藝術獎第16屆年度大獎。2018年擔任國美館「野根莖─2018台灣美術雙年展」客座策展人；2019年擔任由國立臺灣文學館與空總臺灣當代文化實驗場聯合主辦的「妖氣都市：鬼怪文學與當代藝術特展」策展人。近年受邀擔任2021年高美館「TAKAO．台客．南方HUE：李俊賢」雙策展人之一以及「2022 Mattauw大地藝術季」策展人。
Gong Jow-Jiun
Associate professor and director of the Doctoral Program in Art Creation and Theory at the Tainan National University of the Arts. Gong is acclaimed as Chinese translator of writings by Gaston Bachelard, Maurice Merlau-Ponty and Carl Gustav Jung into Chinese. Besides his research, Gong is engaging with curatorial activities. In 2013, he curated the exhibition “Are We Working too Much?” at the Eslite Gallery, Taipei. In 2017, he curated the exhibition “Kau-Pue, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival” that wins the 16th Taishin Arts Award. In 2018, he curated the exhibition “2018 Taiwan Biennial─Wild Rhizome”. In 2021, he curated the exhibition TAKAO TAIKE SOUTHERN HUE JUINSHYAN LEE, & 2022 Mattauw Earth triennial Tseng-wen River─A River with A Thousand Name.

陳平浩
影評人。桃園台灣人，一九八○年生。近年關注：電影作為藝術與技術，影像的政治，電影與當代藝術，台灣電影史的重探。評論散見《放映週報》、《破報》、《紀工報》、《國影本事》、《電影欣賞》等刊物。
Chen Ping-Hao
Film critic from Taoyuan, Taiwan. Born in 1980. His recent interests explore how films serve as art and technique, politics of images and the re-examination of Taiwanese film history. He has published extensively on FunScreen, Film Appreciation Journal and other magazines.

田偲妤
國立臺灣藝術大學藝術管理與文化政策研究所碩士，曾任《博物之島》編輯，現任《研之有物》編輯。
Sally Tian
Master of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, National Taiwan University of Arts.

林意真
國立臺灣大學歷史系學士
Alexandra Lin
Bachelor of History, National Taiwan University

許生翰
舞踏手、身體工作者，臺南人。師事大野慶人。專長為舞踏、現代舞、戲劇及行為藝術，跨足編舞、表演、教學及顧問。個人作品常以舞踏純白的身體為基底，或以抑鬱、或以殘酷、或以痛苦為詮釋，透過不經遮掩的袒露與觀者進行碰觸，對深處的靈魂進行提問及批判。
Sean Trudi Hsu
Born and raised in Tainan, Sean Trudi Hsu is a Butoh dancer and a student of Kazuo Ohno. He specializes in Butoh, modern dance, theater, and performance art, and works across choreography, performance, teaching, and consulting. His works are often based on the pure white body of Butoh, interpreted in a depressing, brutal, or painful way, touching the viewer through uncovered exposure and soul-searching questions.

王煜松
王煜松的作品以複合媒材為主，透過自身的生命經驗及個人觀察，在生活中探索各種創作的可能。大學時期的作品，以思考繪畫及版畫本身的媒材為出發，但運用不同於繪畫及版畫的方式去接近關於其本質的事物，作品經常融入身體感知、空間場域等元素。近期作品關注空間中曾經存在的過去、正在發生的現在，以及可能發生的未來。透過各種想像拼湊再閱讀，從自身的生活環境、生命經驗擴及到更廣的社會意識、群體關係，試圖探尋虛構及真實之間的曖昧地帶。個人網站：https://sean0978622068.weebly.com/
Wang Yu-Song
Born in Hualien in 1994, Wang Yu-Song is currently a student at the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan. He received a B.A. in printmaking from the School of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts in 2016. A mixed-media artist, he aims at exploring various possibilities of creation in everyday lives through lived experience and personal observations. His works often incorporate affects, physical sensations, and spatial elements. His recent works focus on the “past” that has existed, the “now” that is happening, and the “future” that may take place. Wang likes to explore the ambiguous zone between fiction and reality through his own living environment, lived experience, and to a greater extent, social consciousness and relationships in groups. Through objects, images or particular spatial configurations, his works invite the viewers to open up all their senses and read and interpret the works with their own imagination.
https://sean0978622068.weebly.com/

澎葉生(Yannick Dauby)
1974年生於法國，他的專業養成為具象音樂和即興音樂，使用拾得物、電子原音工具和攝音術。 作為一個錄音工作者，他對於動物、自然聲音和都會/工業情境，以及不尋常的聲音現象，都很感興趣。他也與音樂或舞蹈工作者、視覺或影像創作者時常合作，生產出的形式如影音演出、出版或裝置、展覽。他同時也是獨立電影領域的聲音設計與混音工作者。2007年起，他主要生活與創作地點在台灣。著迷於人類學與生態學的他，透過個人創作與研究，持續探索這座島嶼的聲音風景，發展與地方社群有關的創作計劃、紀錄某些環境內的生物與環境的互動。他也與生物學家合作，創造介於藝術與地方的計畫。近期出版山林環境錄音書〈福山，太平山〉（中英雙語）。個人網站：www.kalerne.net
Yannick Dauby
b. 1974, France/Taiwan. Background in musique concrete and improvisation, using found objects, electroacoustic devices and phonography.
As a sound recordist, he has particular interest for animals or nature sounds as well as urban/industrial situations and unusual acoustic phenomena. Excursions are pretext to a sonic gathering, and often leads to the realization of phonographic collages. He often collaborates with other musicians, visual artists and dancers, producing audio-visual performances, publications or installations. He is also an independent and awarded sound designer and sound mixer for cinema: documentary films, short films, fiction and experimental cinema.
He has based in Taiwan since 2007, interested into the field of anthropology and ecology, exploring the island's soundscape through artistic research, developing art projects in local communities (Hakka, Atayal) and documenting the fauna and its environment, creating art & science projects in collaborations with biologists. He has been involved in projects related to coral reefs in Penghu and mountain forests in Northern Taiwan.
www.kalerne.net

黃祥昀
荷蘭萊頓大學媒體研究所碩士，研究聚焦於動態影像中的時間哲學、後殖民歷史方法論與網路藝術理論。文章散見於臺北數位藝術中心、今藝術、空總實驗波、國藝會現象書寫- 視覺藝評：「雲的藝評」。從小熱愛當代藝術，近期嘗試將自己的詩集《一場雨的時間》轉化為實驗電影與行為藝術，經營平台 「雲朵影像詩」，推廣以詩為劇本的影像創作。個人網站：https://cloudartproduction.format.com/
Huang Hsiang-Yun
Hsiang-Yun Huang (X.Y. Huang) is a visual artist and researcher of contemporary art theory based in Taiwan and the Netherlands.
She completed her bachelor in Philosophy at National Taiwan University, before going on to graduate at the Film and Photographic Studies master at Leiden University (NL) with the thesis “The Treatment of Time in Cinema: A Case Study of Cinema of Long Take, Tsai-Ming Liang’s Stray Dogs (2013) and What Time Is It There? (2001)” employing a Deleuzian framework.
https://cloudartproduction.format.com/

艾瑪．杜松(Emma Dusong)
1982年出生於法國，艾瑪．杜松定居、創作於巴黎與白朗峰霞慕尼。她以榮譽學位自法國國立高等美術學院畢業，並擁有藝術與美學博士，也於大學擔任資深講師。自2000年，她於法國及世界各地發表作品，如巴黎龐畢度中心、東京宮、首爾總體美術館。她的作品被公共機構與私人典藏，如貝納德別墅基金會(Maison Bernard Endowment Fund)委託她於建築師Antti Lovag建造的獨特建築中製作現地聲音聲音裝置。2020年她榮獲法國文化部頒發的法國藝術與文學騎士勛章。2020年至2021年，她獲選為馬德里委拉斯開茲之家(Casa de Velazquez)的駐村藝術家。《如果島嶼會作夢》是她在台灣的首次聯展。https://www.emmadusong.org/

Emma Dusong
Born in 1982 in France, Emma Dusong is based in Paris and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. A graduate from the Superior National School of Fine Arts of Paris with honors of the jury, she is also a doctor in Sciences of Arts and Aesthetics and a University Senior lecturer.
Since the early 2000s, she has shown her work in France and abroad, such as Centre Pompidou Paris, Palais de Tokyo, Total Museum of Seoul. Her works are collected by public institutions as well as private collections such as the Maison Bernard Endowment Fund for which she made an in situ vocal piece for Antti Lovag’s architecture. In 2020, she was appointed Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. She was in residency at Casa de Velazquez in Madrid in 2020-2021.
When Islands Dream is her first group show in Taiwan.
https://www.emmadusong.org/

 

馬祖的北竿島上有個「祈夢」習俗：每年有一天，人們到廟裡，帶著他們對未來的疑問，入睡、作夢。夢裡閃現的畫面，就是神祇的回覆。有時，當提問人難以入夢，可委由較為靈敏的「代夢人」代為作夢提問，協助接收神明諭旨。「作夢」在此成為一種提問的方式，而且不局限於一對一的問答，提問者讓渡主體，邀請代夢人的參與，透過更敏感、直覺的方式感應。

《如果島嶼會作夢》因此借用「祈夢」儀式中「代夢人」的概念，思考藝術家是否有可能扮演「代夢人」的角色，代替馬祖作夢？詩人白靈曾形容外島總是為本島服務，「看似地處邊境，卻始終作著別人的夢，無法選擇自己的未來」。我們試圖翻轉這樣的視野，藉由邀請「非馬祖人」甚至「非台灣人」的創作者，以馬祖為思考的錨點重新探究。馬祖列島作為戰地前線，經歷過比台灣本島更漫長嚴苛的戒嚴，無論是交通、貨幣、捕魚出航時間、夜裡不得有燈火等生活的各方面都受到限制。長期作為前線的各種犧牲，也讓本土意識興起後的「金馬割棄論」難以被島民接受。然而這些幽微的情緒與文獻之外的常民經驗，是博物館、遺跡「保家衛國」的戰地歷史展示中較少觸及的。夢有沒有可能是一種通道，讓我們能稍微接近、探問如地下坑道般錯縱潛藏的情緒與精神狀態？

展覽邀請五位藝術家來到馬祖，以多元的媒材與手法回應展覽命題，連接成不同的夢境。無論是以個人的、身體的方式感知島嶼，或是採集當地居民的記憶與觀點，藝術家嘗試以島嶼作為主體出發，而他們個人的視角仍會與居民的、地方的角度交錯。這正是代夢的獨特價值：我們得以抽離自身、全心全意地浸淫在他者的狀態，並且再回返自身，去傳遞與解讀屬於他者的夢境。

歡迎你，帶著你的提問出發，進入這個由本島、外島、本國、外國視野共築的馬祖夢境。無論你是馬祖人、熟悉馬祖與否，都希望你可以透過代夢人的視野獲得某些啟發，進而觸動更多現實中的探問與交流。

On Beigan Island of Matsu, there is a custom of Dreaming Ceremony. On the 29th of the first lunar month, people go to temple to fall asleep and dream with their questions about the future. The images that appear in their dreams are the replies of the gods. Sometimes, when the questioner has difficulty falling asleep, a more sensitive "dreamer" may be appointed to ask a dream on their behalf to help receive the gods' instructions. Here, "dreaming" becomes a form of questioning, and it is not limited to one-to-one Q&A. The questioner gives away their subjectivity and invites the participation of the dreamer, to approach through a more sensitive and intuitive way.

The exhibition When Islands Dream thus borrows the concept of "dreamer" from the Dreaming Ceremony, and considers whether it is possible for artists to play the role of the dreamer and to dream in place of Matsu. The poet Bai Ling once described the offshore islands as always serving the main island, "seemingly on the border, but always dreaming someone else's dream, unable to choose their own future.” By inviting artists who are "non-Matsu" or even "non-Taiwanese" to use Matsu as an anchor point for reflection, we attempt to revisit the islands as the military front line, which had experienced even longer-lasting and harsher martial law than the main island of Taiwan, with restrictions on transportation, currency, fishing sailing hours, and no lights at night. The various sacrifices made at the front line for a long time also made it difficult for the stance of "Kinmen-Matsu Abandonment" to be accepted by the islanders after the rise of Taiwanization. Yet the museums and relics that showcase the history of the "proudly defending the country" rarely touch upon such subtle emotions and ordinary experiences. Is it possible that dreams can be a gateway that allows us to get a little closer and explore the emotions and spiritual states that are hidden like underground tunnels?

The exhibition invites five artists to Matsu to create artworks where they each respond to the exhibition theme with their unique approaches, forming different dreamscapes that echo one another. Whether they perceive the island in a personal and physical way, or collect the memories and perspectives of local residents, the artists try to treat the island as the main subject, while their personal perspectives still intersect with the residents and the place. And this very nature is where the unique value of “dreaming for others” lies—we are allowed to withdraw from ourselves to immerse in the state of the other, and then to return to ourselves to convey and interpret the dreams of others.

So, welcome to the Matsu dreamland built by local, foreign, national, and international visions with your questions. Whether you are a Matsu native or familiar with Matsu or not, we hope that you will gain some insight through the visions of the artists, namely, the dreamers, which hopefully will lead to more realistic inquiries and exchanges.

專文
因緣際會，在島嶼作夢
謝宇婷

評論
迷霧島嶼，夢體收音：論《如果島嶼會作夢》
龔卓軍
夢的認識論：評《如果島嶼會作夢》
陳平浩

座談側記
當我們來到馬祖策展——走進地方的工作心法分享
臺灣本島經驗之外，並不「理所當然」的馬祖日常

藝術家與作品
許生翰
王煜松
澎葉生
黃祥昀
艾瑪・杜松

附錄
馬祖年表

Essay
Serendipity: Matsu Islands, Taiwan & Me
Hsieh Yu-Ting

Review
Misty Islands, Dreamy Reception: On When Islands Dream
Gong Jow-Jiun
Epistemology of Dreams: A Review of When Islands Dream
Chen Ping-Hao

Talk
When We Curate in Matsu: How to work with the Community?
Beyond the Mainland Taiwanese Experience: The Not-So-Common Matsu Daily Life

Artists & Works
Sean Trudi Hsu
Wang Yu-Song
Yannick Dauby
Huang Hsiang-Yun
Emma Dusong

Appendix
Chronology of Matsu

迷霧島嶼．夢體收音：論《如果島嶼會作夢》
文︱龔卓軍（國立臺南藝術大學藝術創作理論研究所博士班副教授兼所長）

用起霧的心境來創作，表現明白與未明白之間的話語與圖像，那些確實存在的模糊，易被誤讀的生活表象，總是在清澈的那一刻，才會懂得──看不清也是一種看清。
──劉梅玉《寫在霧裡》〈自序〉

出生在北方之北的邊境東引，長居南竿，長年生活在瀰漫、圍繞著島嶼白茫茫迷霧裡的詩人劉梅玉曾說：「用起霧的心境來創作，表現明白與未明白之間的話語與圖像，那些確實存在的模糊，易被誤讀的生活表象，總是在清澈的那一刻，才會懂得──看不清也是一種看清。」2021年底，我在台北當代藝術館（MoCA Taipei）看了《如果島嶼會作夢》這個展，如同進入了一團迷霧中，也好似走進了一場夢境，周身圍繞著陌生的語音，窸窸窣窣的陳述，沒有來由地吟唱，以及三位看似在作夢中的人影。其中一位作夢者身影，就是詩人劉梅玉。

這個展覽最大的特色，就是它在展場中的佈置，包括視效影像、聲音影像與裝置，並沒有將我們的感官機能所收到的訊息，串聯到某種完整的「動作－影像」中，去說一個完整的故事。這些感知並不延伸為完整敘事，我們找不到一幕幕接續完整的馬祖故事，而是在「回憶－影像」與「夢幻－影像」之間徘徊，讓真實與想像、物理與心智、客觀與主觀、描繪與敘事、現實與潛在之間，就像德勒茲（Gilles Deleuze）在《電影II：時間－影像》一書中討論的羅塞里尼（Roberto Rossellini）電影《火山邊緣之戀》（Stromboli，1950），在火山島史憧波歷（Stromboli）上，登陸、捕魚、大地震動、火山爆發、異鄉人登高、精神崩潰，這一連串的場景與聲響「不再存在感官機能影像以及它的延伸，而是一邊純聲光影像與另一邊來自時間與思維的影像之間，更為複雜的循環關係。這些鏡頭理所當然地共存著，一起組成該島的靈魂與身體。」（頁436）對於《如果島嶼會作夢》這個展覽的感知，就如同進入了他者的夢境，許多原本在政宣影片、愛情片、警匪片、科幻片裡的規整敘事影音，在這裡被打散。仔細觀看聆聽個別作品，觀眾會更進一步被引導入益發碎形化的影音效果中；然而，你卻確知這一切都在指向一組島嶼，指向馬祖諸島，彷彿發夢的是這幾座島嶼上大大小小萬事萬物的身世。出了展場，夢境結束，卻什麼細節也記不得，只知道這些島嶼勢必經歷了異樣的時間與思維，你碰觸到的是列島發夢時的靈魂與身體，一切都看不清、聽不明白，如夢似幻。

直到兩個月後，2022年2月，我實際登島參訪，才有乍然看清聽清的體悟。登島的第一天，恰是農曆正月13日，我坐船赴北竿參與「坂里十三暝」的擺暝祭典。「擺暝」傳承了中國大陸福建閩東區域（福州、長樂、連江等地）在元宵時節，村境廟社集結眾人、祭祀神明的習俗。每年擺暝，坂里村都要請白馬尊王的香爐到廟社，十三暝整日有完整的祭典過程，從早上的擺筵、擺燭，下午的神乩拜年，傍晚的請香迎神、遶境燒馬糧，一直到深夜還有送喜、添花、辦喜酒，以及半夜唱唸請神簿等儀式。坂里大宅，熱鬧非凡，各路請香迎神隊伍，與眾人一齊前往中澳白馬尊王廟迎神起駕，共同遶境。白馬尊王以收瘟、祈雨之神聞名，這一天傍晚，果然在低溫中下起了雨，雖然因疫情考量而縮小規模，但熱鬧的氣氛依然不減。在這種濃厚的民間宗教氣氛中，同樣在馬祖北竿，芹壁村的龍角峰五靈宮廟，每年到了農曆正月29日，相傳何仙翁會到此讓信眾祈求夢境解惑，這就是所謂的「祈夢」。由於每年只有一次，這一天，許多馬祖鄉親會爭相來求夢，人手一件棉被、枕頭，排隊到廟裡睡覺祈夢。更有趣的是，如果祈夢者睡不著，過於清醒，還可以請別人幫忙作夢。

祈夢者與代夢者，感應神明啟示的影像與聲音，就成了《如果島嶼會作夢》辯證的出發點。馬祖在第二次世界大戰後歷經了冷戰結構下的國共對峙「戰地政務之夢」，這個長眠難醒的夢境，讓馬祖成為台灣本島的「犧牲體系」——犧牲居民與地景自由無拘束的狀態，以等待戰爭、準備戰爭來取代島嶼的日常生活，交通、貨幣、捕魚出航時間、夜間燈火管制都在戰備犧牲之列。一直到1992年解除戒嚴，島嶼的聲音才漸次浮現。曾經擔任過議員與文化局長的「刺鳥咖啡書店」主人曹以雄曾經說過：「對我來說，台灣才是我的離島」。台灣／馬祖主奴之辯證，於此升起。30年來，何謂馬祖在地的聲音，成為解除戰地政務後「馬祖之夢」的嶄新命題。（全文待續）

Misty Islands, Dreamy Reception: On When Islands Dream

Gong Jow-Jiun (Associate Professor and Director of PhD Program, Institute of Art Creation Theory, Tainan National University of the Arts)

I create with the state of mind of the fog, and I express the words and images between the understood and the ununderstood, as the blurred and misinterpreted appearances of life do exist. It is always at the moment of clarity that one understands that - not being able to see is also a kind of seeing clearly.
Preface of Written in the Fog by Liu Mei-Yu

The poet Liu Mei-Yu, who was born in the northern border of Dongyin and has been living in Nangan for years in the white fog that surrounds the island, once said, "I create with the state of mind of the fog, and I express the words and images between the understood and the ununderstood, as the blurred and misinterpreted appearances of life do exist. It is always at the moment of clarity that one understands that - not being able to see is also a kind of seeing clearly.” At the end of 2021, I saw the exhibition When Islands Dream at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, and it was like entering a fog and a dream, surrounded by unfamiliar voices, small and long-winded statements, unexplained chanting and three seemingly dreaming figures. One of the dreaming figures is the poet Liu Mei-Yu.

The most distinctive feature of this exhibition is that its arrangement in the exhibition space, including visual effects, sound images and installations, does not link the information received by our senses into a complete "motion-image" relation to tell a complete story. In other words, they do not extend to the perception of a complete narrative where audience can read in a sequence scene by scene. Instead, we are torn between "memory-image" and "dream-image," between reality and imagination, physicality and mentality, objectivity and subjectivity, depiction and narrative, actuality and potentiality. Such experience resembles how Deleuze discusses the volcanic island Stromboli in Rossellini's Stromboli, terra di Dio in his book Cinema II: The Time-Image —in the series of scenes and sounds of landing, fishing, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, alien ascents, and spiritual collapses, “there are no longer sensory-motor images with their extensions, but much more complex circular links between pure optical and sound images on the one hand, and on the other hand images from time and thought, on planes which all coexist by right, constituting the soul and body of the island” (Deleuze 47). To perceive the exhibition When Islands Dream is to enter a dream world of others where many of the regular narrative videos of political propaganda films, romance films, police procedurals, and science fiction films are broken apart. Thus, when the audience attentively watch and listen to each individual work, they would be led to even more fractalized audio-visual effects. Yet, even so, the audience are still firmly aware of the fact that everything just refers to the same islands, the Matsu Islands. The dream is almost about the life of everything on the islands, large and small. When you leave the exhibition, the dream ends, but you cannot remember any details, except that the islands must have experienced a different time and thought, and what you have touched is the soul and body of the islands when they dream. Everything is unreadable and unintelligible, just like a dream.

It was not until two months later, in February 2022, when I actually visited the islands, that the perception of seeing and hearing clearly finally dawned on me. The first day I visited the islands was the 13th of January, and I took a boat to Beigan Island to participate in the "Ban-li 13th Night" of the Baiming Festival." Inherited from a tradition of the east of Fujian Province, China (including places like Fuzhou, Changle, and Lienchiang), the village temple community gathers to worship the gods during the Baiming Festival. Every year, Banli Village invites the incense burner for the King of White Horse to the temple community. A full-fledged ritual takes place all through the day of the 13th Night, from the setting of the feast and candles in the morning, the worship of the gods in the afternoon, the invocation of incense to welcome the gods in the evening, the burning of horse feed in the parade, and the late-night rituals such as sending happiness, adding flowers, hosting a wedding reception, and singing the invocation book at midnight. At Banli Mansion, there is a great deal of activities as the various incense-offering teams go to the White Horse Temple in Zhong’aokou to welcome the gods and hold the procession together with the crowd. The King of White Horses is famous for ending the plague and sending rain. And that day, it did rain in the low temperature in the evening. Although the scale of the event was reduced due to the pandemic, the bustling atmosphere remained unabated. In the midst of this strong folk religious atmosphere, it is said that on the 29th of the first month of the lunar calendar every year at the Longjiaofeng Wulinggong Temple in the village of Qinbi, also in Matsu Beigan, He Xian Weng will come to let people pray for a dream to solve their problems. Since it only takes place once a year, many Matsu villagers come to pray for a dream on this day and line up at the temple with a quilt and pillow. What's more interesting is that if the dream supplicant is unable to sleep and is too wide awake, he or she can ask others to help him or her to receive a dream.

The prayers and dreamers, and the images and voices revealed by the deities became the starting point of a dialectic in When Islands Dream. After World War II, Matsu experienced the "dream as the War Zone Administration Committee" under the Cold War structure of the confrontation between the Communist Party and Taiwan. This long-lasting dream made Matsu the "sacrificial system" of Taiwan's main island, sacrificing the freedom of being unstrained of the residents and the landscape and also replacing the island's daily life with a long wait and preparation for war. It was not until 1992 when the martial law was lifted that Matsu’s voice started to emerge bit by bit. Tsao Yixiong, the owner of the Thorn Bird Café and Bookstore, a former legislator, and a former director of the Council for Cultural Affairs, once said, "To me, Taiwan is my offshore island.” This is where the master/slave debate between Taiwan and Matsu rises. Over the past thirty years, the local voice of Matsu has become a brand-new proposition for the "Matsu dream" after the role as the war zone administration was lifted. (To be continued)