樂生中元祭(上)A Ghost Festival March to the Underworld and Back

*Plz be warned: Watch@your own risk! 過敏體質的人請自負風險!!

On 8/23 8pm, people are invited to join a Ghost Month Zhongyuan Festival March to remember the Reservation of Losheng Sanatorium (Chinese: 樂生療養院 is a hospital for lepers, which is located in Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Losheng means "happy life". It was constructed in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial period. At present there has been heated debates and protests about the plans to replace Losheng Sanatorium with a MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) depot.

People who claimed that the Losheng Sanatorium should be preserved have raised the following issues:
- Waste of money: 3/5 of the depot site needs to be built on flatland; therefore $90 million (USD) will be spent on flattening and improving the soil.
- Disaster for the environment: After flattening the mountain, a ten-story retaining wall will remain, destroying the natural environment.
- Safety concern: The future depot will be situated upon earth faults.
- Ravaged historical site: The Losheng Sanatorium is an important cultural asset for people in East Asia. The depot construction will turn it all into dust.
- Ordeal for patients: The patients are forced to leave the place they spent their lives, suffering mentally and physically from the displacement.
- Autocratic decision-making: The MRT Department never inquired the needs of Losheng patients—the 'residents' of the site—which is a violation of fundamental human rights.
- World Heritage site: It has witnessed the inhumane treatment (such as discrimination and compulsory quarantine) of the lepers, who had undergone 70 years of government oppression.

*Due to fear of ghosts, people practiced Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in daily life and held the Zhongyuan Festival in the lunar 7th month, aka Ghost Month (鬼月). It was usually called Qingzan Zhongyuan (慶讚中元, in praise of the Zhongyuan Festival) or Zhongyuan Zhai (中元齋, Middle Primordial Festival); some regard the name as Japanese in origin, and call it Zhongyuan Rite (中元祭, Zhongyuan Festival).

*Heaven, earth and water --- defined as the three realms governed, respectively, by the Office of Heaven, Office of Earth, and Office of Water. The Sanguan, Lords of Three Realms (三界公), referred to the deities in the three realms in general.