Mark Daffey
July 4, 2018
Taipei’s annual Dream Parade—a cacophonous riot of color honoring Taiwan’s aboriginal villagers (and funded by a local property magnate)—has been likened to Rio’s Carnivàle and the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mark Daffey dives in.
Dressed in guises designed to replicate banana peels, wizened old women turn back the clock with a zestful vigor that belies their years. Bespectacled men, their decorative attire ablaze with what appear to be licks of fire, rattle tambourines while braying rhythmic chants. Latino-looking samba dancers frolic in step with the locals, never missing a beat, each costume as outrageous it is eye-catching. Suffice to say, it’s not your typical Taiwanese scene.
Welcome to Taipei’s Dream Parade, an annual street festival that’s part-musical jamboree, part-dance fiesta and part-fancy dress party, with more than a smattering of beauty pageantry added to the recipe.
The highlight of the parade is arguably the number of teams vying for first prize in the samba drumming competition, with judges posted along the parade route critiquing their skills, costumes, choreography and enthusiasm. While samba drumming is not an aboriginal tradition, Tsai believes it helps to preserve rural culture as more and more young people move to the cities for work.
Contestants are typically schoolchildren drawn from aboriginal villages around Taiwan, each first having gone through an elimination process prior to undertaking the journey to Taipei. With upwards of a thousand drummers pounding away, the din is loud enough to trick seismic indicators into thinking that disaster is afoot.
Prizes are also awarded to the person adjudged the most beautiful samba girl, and to Tsai’s ‘samba grannies’—elderly participants who best embody the spirit of living life to its fullest. For some, it seems, the party never stops.
