Japan’s 2016 Aomori Nebuta Festival, hosted by Aomori City Government, will start on August 1st. A group of 13 pupils from Yi Ming Senior High School will give a Taiwanese drum and folk dance performance at the festival that will show the passion and vitality of youth. This performance will also feature Taiwan’s diplomatic spearhead ThirdTechno Price Nezha, displaying the merger of Taiwanese folk belief and modern culture. County Magistrate Chiu, Ching-chun hosted the flag presentation ceremony for the performers on July 28, hoping that the display of the hottest and most distinctive aspects of Taiwanese culture on the Aomori festival stage will convey Taiwan’s vitality and innovativeness.
Magistrate Chiu said that when the county hosted Taiwan Lantern Festival in 2013, Aomori City specially made a Dragon King Nebuta Float to take part in the parade and, from this time, Hsinchu County and Aomori have had a friendly relationship. In 2014 a 40 members Aomori Nebuta Gairyukai Group was invited to perform at the Hsinchu County International Folk Drum Arts Festival; in 2015, Aomori Nebuta Festival Rhythm Preservation Society NI Group represented the city at the Taiwan International Festival of Hakka Culture. After arts exchange on a number of occasions, Hsinchu and Aomori signed a cultural exchange letter of intention to promote the continuation of the bilateral relationship through Hsinchu County International Folk Drum Arts Festival and Aomori Nebuta Festival art and culture and tourism exchange.
Magistrate Chiu thanked Yi Ming Senior High School Chairman Pan, Peng-ren, Principal Lai, Wen-zheng and teachers for caring for and guiding the pupils and hoped that, through their performance overseas at the Aomori Nebuta Festival, the performing group from the school will display the innovation of Taiwanese folk belief and culture to an international audience and help bring Taiwan and Japan closer together.