Do you believe in ghosts and gods? Maybe it's like magic, you have to see it to believe it.
Originally I was an atheist, but since I started taking photos of “Ghost in the Park” six years ago, I have been going out in the middle of the night to take photos, and I have encountered unexplainable paranormal events, which have made me realize the existence of intangible things. I began to wear a talisman and often went to temples and participated in the celebrations of the gods, so I got to know some of the clergy who serve the gods.
During my participation in the ceremonies, I observed that the relationship between the gods and humans was very different from what I had imagined. Instead of a top-down relationship, the gods and humans were more like friends. God is in another dimension, and when he wants to do something in the human world, he has to do it through the human body. Therefore, human beings help the gods to do what they want to do, for example, if the gods want to go on a parade, the sedan chairperson will take charge of this important task, and take the gods to the streets to meet old friends or to contact the people who need help. If the relative of the clergyman has a problem or disaster in his or her life, the God will remind him or her of this and bless him or her in the process. The clergy use God or mediums to help people solve their problems.
During the ceremony, I found it amazing that the sedan chair moves by itself. Different deities have different shaking characteristics, e.g. the general's swing is gentle, the general's swing is full of energy, and the Goddess swing bounces up and down in an elegant manner.
Everything in the temple must be instructed by the nerves, what the temple should look like, what kind of murals and special shapes it should have, what time the parade should be held, what order and route the parade should take, all decisions are made under the instruction of the gods. The gods are very much like human beings. They have a sense of manners, a sense of time, personalities, emotions, and their own preferences, which are reflected in the behavioral patterns of the God, and some of them even like to drink alcohol, which is full of humanity.
In the series "Mascot and Tumor", I photographed the sedan chair bearers who serve the gods in Beigan(Taiwan), and used portraits to capture the changes in their bodies as they carry the sedan chair over the years, revealing the unseen bodies of the everyday people who are involved in the rituals. The photographs show the unseen everyday bodies of these people during the rituals. They have developed a small hill on their necks, commonly known as a "rich bun", which is medically known as a "lipoma". Because of the constant use of their necks to carry the sedan chair, the stick was pressed and rubbed against their necks for long periods of time, and over the years, the lumps accumulated, giving them the appearance of a ball of strong biceps, which were a bit elastic to the touch. Lipomas are benign tumors with no nerves or pain. To them, lipoma is not a disease, but a sign of honor and qualification, and a trace of the presence of the gods, which they call "the mark of the gods".
