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Abstract: This article seeks to explore the different symbolic meanings of Nezha in Taiwan and their multiple implications in the socio-cultural context. Nezha, or the Third Prince (Santaizi 三太子), is a traditional protector deity in Taiwanese folk religion. According to folklore, Nezha was a rebellious trouble-bound child who eventually severed ties with his family. As a divine being, Nezha is regarded as the prototype of the rebellious youth, the “rebel without a cause,” so to speak. The contemporary novelist Xi Song adapted the Nezha legend to a psychological fiction, titled Nezha in the Investiture of the Gods (1971), depicting the deity as a lonely hero. Perhaps it is Nezha’s exceptional temperament, as described in mythology, that propelled him to be worshipped as a patron god by gamblers during the eighties and nineties, when the Mark Six Lottery in Taiwan was widespread but illegal. After the lifting of martial law, Nezha’s courage in relation to rebellion continued to inspire artists such as Tsai Mingliang and Hou Chunming. Tsai’s Rebels of the Neon God (1992) implies the adoption of Nezha as a metaphor to symbolize decadent teenagers in modern metropolitan Taipei. Hou’s Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals (1993) presents a strange Nezha, depicted as a rebellious infant in an avant-garde style. However, since the performance of Techno Nezha at the opening ceremonies of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, these earlier images of Nezha have been transformed into an amusing childlike figure, which has since become an icon of Taiwanese popular culture. |
