Taiwanese businessmen build Mazu-themed immersive performance park to facilitate cross-strait cultural exchanges

China News Service, Fujian, Meizhou Island, November 14 (Zheng Jiangluo) "Our performance content does not deliberately tell about Mazu, but the spirit of Mazu is around us all the time." On Meizhou Island, Putian, Fujian, the birthplace of Mazu culture, Taiwanese businessman Lin Baojun transformed an idle TV drama shooting base into an immersive performing arts park, using folk performances as a carrier to build a bridge for cross-strait cultural exchanges.

Mazu's original name was Lin Mo. She was born on Meizhou Island in the Northern Song Dynasty. She died while rescuing a shipwreck and was revered as the "Goddess of the Sea" by the people. Today, Mazu temples are spread across many countries and regions around the world. The Meizhou Mazu Temple attracts a large number of believers at home and abroad every year to pay homage to their ancestors.

"Post-70s" Lin Baojun is from Taoyuan, Taiwan. A few years ago, he accidentally visited Meizhou Island and discovered the filming location of the TV series "Mazu". "There are only vacant buildings that lack content and it is difficult to retain tourists. It is a pity." As a Mazu believer, Lin Baojun came up with the idea of ​​developing an immersive cultural tourism project.

In 2021, his team reached a cooperation with the Meizhou Mazu Temple and officially launched the project to promote the "Origin from Meizhou" performing arts project to Mazu Film and Television City. After more than two years of on-site research and preparation, the project opened for trial operation in August 2024, becoming the first Mazu cultural contextual interactive live performance project in mainland China.

Different from traditional single-scene live performances, this project adopts an all-weather situational park model. The park arranges fifty performances on a daily basis, and there can be more than sixty performances in a single day during the peak tourist season, which are performed in a fixed period of time. In daily operations, the park has rich NPC (non-player character) interactive links. Visitors can experience the wedding customs of Putian Island and watch the dances of Taiwanese ethnic minorities. During major festivals such as the Spring Festival, special street patrol performances are also added.

Lin Baojun said that the performance integrates the performances of Taiwan's ethnic minorities with local folk customs in Putian. He hopes that the audience can understand the spirit of Mazu and experience the power of fishermen who go out to sea to fight in the immersive experience.

Since its opening, the park has received a large number of Taiwanese tourists, tour groups, and cross-strait youth study, seminar and exchange groups.