Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi

'Hold on. What's going on here?'

I couldn't help but voice the thought out loud.

For, in that moment, I seemed to have been transported back into the midst of Shokyokusai Tenkatsu's Magic Troupe.


I'd crossed paths with Tenkatsu's troupe long ago, before I'd started high school. They had been on tour, and on the day they arrived in Nagasaki, my aunt Kikuko and I happened upon the opening parade.

The procession comprised a majestic formation of rickshaws, rows and rows of them with no end in sight - enough to rival an army regiment. The band rode at the frontmost rickshaws, performing with remarkable gusto; after them came the women magicians, beaming and waving at the crowd in exquisite maquillage; they were followed by the male magicians in top hats. Other troupe members went on foot, encircling the rickshaws and ushering them along.... My chest thrummed and lifted, as though something had been strung from my navel all the way up into the sky.

And here I was, decades later, on the outpost island of Taiwan, reliving this old reverie.

Translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King