My wife and I are doing a series of pieces on different aspects of Taiwanese street Daoism for Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine. The editor is a guy named Gene Ching and he has been super helpful in getting the series going.
The Jan/Feb issue features a piece on the 8 Generals (八家將). What I have called the 8 Generals is probably more accurately translated as the 8 Retainers in the sense of staff officers working for a court official. And actually what they are quite close to, in a weird sense, is cops, police officers and detectives.
Their job is to investigate, arrest and punish evil spirits, ghosts and other banes on the neighborhood. This kind of comes out with the photo. Several of the guys are carrying wooden handcuffs and badges (the kind of wooden fan thing in the guys hands).
In real life the performers usually study some form of southern shaolin, and they almost are always major users of meth---as was evidenced by 73 of them getting busted down in Tai Chung about a week ago.
Take care,
Brian
Full Version: Celestial Cops; the Ba Jia Jing
Hi Brian,
Cheers, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. I often enjoy the Kung Fu and Tai Chi magazine.
Is the meth use for spiritual reasons
Cheers, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. I often enjoy the Kung Fu and Tai Chi magazine.
Is the meth use for spiritual reasons
Yes, it is. Well, there is two sides to the whole temple performance biz. On the one hand it is a form of Daoism, an important aspect of traditional Chinese martial-folk culture.
On the other hand the whole temple performance biz is racked by gangsters, low lifes, and drugs. For example, like I mentioned above, last weekend 73 performers got busted for drugs down in Taichung. What the deal was, was that a confidential informant tipped off the Taichung police that two bus loads of temple performers were heading down to southern Taiwan for a major performance and that they were all jacked on speed.
Normally the temple performance troupes have financial arrangements with the local police to prevent the police from interfering with the "Cosmic Dao of Methamphetamine". But in this case there seems to have been some kind of breakdown of that. So the real life cops busted the Celestial Cops. Here is a great photo of the 8 Generals in cuffs walking up the stairs in the police station. The two photos are from United Daily newspaper.
In one of the two buses the real life cops found a list of which of the 8 Generals had kicked in how much money to buy the meth. The dollar figures are New Taiwan Dollars (33 New Taiwan dollars equals one U.S. dollar). Meth is cheap here in Taiwan, like in California, so 500 New Taiwan dollars worth of Meth will keep you speeding all day.
So if you ever see these guys and wonder why their hung gar or white crane boxing seems so lively and forceful----it’s the speed.
Taiwan Criminal Justice Dao Czar Brian
On the other hand the whole temple performance biz is racked by gangsters, low lifes, and drugs. For example, like I mentioned above, last weekend 73 performers got busted for drugs down in Taichung. What the deal was, was that a confidential informant tipped off the Taichung police that two bus loads of temple performers were heading down to southern Taiwan for a major performance and that they were all jacked on speed.
Normally the temple performance troupes have financial arrangements with the local police to prevent the police from interfering with the "Cosmic Dao of Methamphetamine". But in this case there seems to have been some kind of breakdown of that. So the real life cops busted the Celestial Cops. Here is a great photo of the 8 Generals in cuffs walking up the stairs in the police station. The two photos are from United Daily newspaper.
In one of the two buses the real life cops found a list of which of the 8 Generals had kicked in how much money to buy the meth. The dollar figures are New Taiwan Dollars (33 New Taiwan dollars equals one U.S. dollar). Meth is cheap here in Taiwan, like in California, so 500 New Taiwan dollars worth of Meth will keep you speeding all day.
So if you ever see these guys and wonder why their hung gar or white crane boxing seems so lively and forceful----it’s the speed.
Taiwan Criminal Justice Dao Czar Brian
QUOTE(Brian L. Kennedy @ Nov 20 2007, 11:08 PM) 
and they almost are always major users of meth---as was evidenced by 73 of them getting busted down in Tai Chung about a week ago.
lol ?
edit: doesnt sound very taoist, this temple was a dancetempel ? raving at club DAO or sumthing lol o.O
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