After several months of hard work, filming for a promotional video about Tainan City’s Anding District has finally been finished. On January 20 at 10am, a press conference for the showing of the short promotional film was held on the third floor of the Anding District Office. Zhan Wen-hao, the short film’s director, was invited to talk about the film project, and city councilor Lin Zhi-zhan, the chief executive secretary of Anding District Farmer’s Association Wang Bao-min, and a host of village chiefs lent their support by being in attendance. Everyone involved in the event worked together in promoting Anding’s local features and characteristics.
Chu Tung, Director of Anding District, said that tourism in the greater Tainan area has always been one of the main pillars of Tainan City Mayor Ching-Te Lai’sadministrative blueprint. The former Tainan City and Tainan County are now combined, yet the greater Tainan area’s 37 administrative districts still enjoy their own unique characteristics, folk customs, cultures, scenery, and local products. As for Anding District, it boasts a great variety of celebrated produce, including sesame, asparagus, sapindus, and watermelon. Furthermore, the district’s small and large temples have their own drum troupes as well as unique traditions for ceremonies and festivals. One of these is a festival where a boat is burned, which symbolizes that the plague is being sent away; this cultural heritage event has a long history and it is carried out once every three years by two local temples—Sucuo’s Changxing Gong and Zhenhu Gong. However, Taiwan to this day knows little about Anding, so by seeing this short promotional video, in which Director Zhan leads a talented team that uses both aerial and ground-based state-of-the-art filmmaking technology, viewers can experience the entire boat-burning ritual from new angles. By making a documentary for these cultural traditions, viewers can look through the lens of Director Zhan’s camera and see Anding’s local lifestyles, natural scenery, and culture sites. The film captures the unique characteristics of Anding so that people all over Taiwan can explore this majestic district through digital devices.
Mayor Ching-Te Lai was not just an audience member though, as he is also part of the cast; his tender-sounding voice narrates the Taiwanese language version, which adds even more warmth to the film. Hearing his voice was the highlight of the press conference, and Lai’s high expectations for his own performance and insistence on re-doing recordings reveals just how much he hopes and expects to see Anding District continue to improve. Director of Anding District Chu Tung expressed that he anticipates that this promotional film will not only result in more people getting to know about this fantastic district, but also raise the popularity of local agricultural produce and create economic value for the area. Chu welcomes everyone to come to experience the tranquility and happiness of Anding.
If you wish to see the short film, please go to the home page of Anding District Office’s website and click on the video link in the top right corner. Or, go to YouTube.com and search幸福安定安定幸福 (Chinese language version) or幸福安定 安定幸福台語版 (Taiwanese language version).
Contact: Anding District Office, Civil Affairs and Humanities Section, Executive Officer Wang Xue-ling
Phone: 5921116 ext. 171