Craig April 30th, 2008
For those who fancy themselves as superheroes or comic book characters, cosplay is the answer. Short for costume play, Cosplay was originally a Japanese subculture that began in the 1970s which featured people dressing as characters from anime, manga, tokasatsu and video games. As it’s grown and spread to other countries, it’s added some local flavor, with characters from Taiwanese puppet theater, Star Wars, American Civil War just a few of the accepted additions to the subculture.

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Tags: "Craig Ferguson Images", "Craig Ferguson", "Petit Fancy 8"., cosplay, Taida, Taipei, Taiwan
Craig April 17th, 2008
Some of the devout followers of Mazu.






Tags: "Craig Ferguson Images", "Craig Ferguson", "lunar March", April. event, Dajia Changhua, Festival, fireworks, Matsu, Mazu, pilgrimage, Taiwan
Craig April 13th, 2008
Fireworks madness from the Mazu Festival. Don’t forget to take a look at previous posts detailing the origins of the Mazu Pilgrimage and images from the first 2 days of this years festival. Also, check out the complete gallery of Mazu images from which these few highlights are taken.

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Tags: "Craig Ferguson Images", "Craig Ferguson", "lunar March", April. event, Dajia Changhua, Festival, fireworks, Matsu, Mazu, pilgrimage, Taiwan
Craig April 7th, 2008
Saturday April 5th saw the start of the 2008 Mazu Pilgrimage. Among the many gods and goddesses worshipped in Taiwan, Mazu (媽祖), the Goddess of the Sea is perhaps the most revered. Every year, in the 3rd month of the lunar calendar, the Dajia Mazu (大甲媽祖), which is housed at the Zhenlan temple (鎮瀾宮), is taken out on a pilgrimage lasting 8 days and covering 300km. Over the course of the 8 days, more than 1 million people will come out to see Mazu as she makes her way from Dajia to Hsingang in Jiayi county and back again, visiting more than 80 temples. It is thought that the Mazu pilgrimage is one of the three largest religious festivals in the world. Last year I wrote a detailed post describing the history of Mazu. Rather than rewrite it today, I’ll point you here for a look at the orgins of Mazu. This post will just be some images from the first 2 days of this years festival, with photos from Dajia’s Zhenlan Temple and Changhua’s Nan Yao Temple.

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Tags: "Craig Ferguson Images", "Craig Ferguson", "lunar March", April. event, Dajia Changhua, Festival, Matsu, Mazu, pilgrimage, Taiwan
Craig March 25th, 2008
The 2008 election season in Taiwan came to an unsurprising conclusion on March 22nd with a resounding win to the KMT (中國國民黨) candidates Ma Ying jeou (馬英九) and running mate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), ending eight years of DPP rule. Ma and Siew, whose winning margin was 17%, will take office on May 20th, 2008. There’s more than enough commentary and analysis of the election on various media sites and blogs, so I’ll just show you a few pictures from the post-election party in Taipei.
All photos ©Craig Ferguson Images. Photos taken by Craig Ferguson and Selina Tseng.

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Tags: "Craig Ferguson Images", "Craig Ferguson", "Ma Ying jeou", "Vincent Siew", election, KMT, kuomintang, pan-blue, president, Taiwan, vote