School: Anlo Hign School
    Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

14 students, ages 13~15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 10, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Yuan-Yuh Chen, Cheng-Fang Su, Cheng-Chieh Chang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://210.240.3.1/

1. Description of Our Community

Keelung, a northeastern coastal city in Taiwan, has been a natural port for its peculiar rocky terrain. Our life has much to do with the sea. It has brought in abundant marine culture and vitality. What's more, it still maintains plentiful cultural heritage after wars and rehabilitation. Adding to the folk rites our ancestors handed down to us , all the merits make it a beautiful place with local culture.

2. Summary of Our Project

Ghost Festival ceremony in lunar mid July is highly valued in Taiwanese tradition. Through this ceremony, we memorize our ancestors and console wandering ghost spirits to pray for divine assistance. In Keelung, lunar July is an important and busy month in which Zhong Yuan ritual, i.e. Ghost Festival ceremony, is held. How Zhong Yuan Rite takes place and the meaning it brings us , adding to its prospects and cultural heritage, will be presented in our project.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

a. Too many people in a group. Some members didn't do their job at set hours so as to lag behind.

b. Too little information in depth in the Internet. To make up for this, we have to obtain the answers we need by continuous interview when encountering the difficulties.

c. Too hard to present our web site in depth. If we don't go deeper enough, the web site might turn out to be merely a "guidebook". We expect our web site to be one with human reflection and cultural influence. We have to achieve this by discussing with each other time by time.

d. Digital video camera is too complicated to deal with. We use digital video camera to shoot the Zhong Yuan ceremony. Since we didn't have related experience for shooting, we find it too complex and time-consuming to make the film.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Surfing internet is popular and user-friendly; however, we discover that what deeply helps us obtain knowledge and learn experience is through real interaction between people. Moreover, it's critical to enhance the local culture for our next generation. It's true especially when we find the tradition of Zhong Yuan ceremony is on the wane. I wish our web site will be a start in making everyone value our culture.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

It's difficult to learn the value of our tradition and culture when we are in school where we're busy studying and taking tests. Before this research, we didn't feel the beauty of our folklore as we do now. But now we identify with our hometown Keelung and its local feature.

While doing the research, we have learned the art of teamwork and planning, realizing how to appreciate " artistic ritual ceremony". Besides, we have acquired how to probe into folklore deeper. We even re-examine the definition of ghost spirits and horror we had before when talking about ghosts. For this reason, we get interested in Life-and-Death. To improve our related knowledge, we exchanged ideas with people actively and collected more information to study.

To have our students realize the importance of cultural heritage, we invited Zhou to deliver a speech. After the speech, we gladly found that our children deeply realize their mission as Keelung residents. They are responsible to repay our society. By popularizing our tradition and folkways, we continue and enhance the morality and ethics of Taiwanese.

This research plays an important role in teaching social customs and culture. We sincerely wish the youngsters in Keelung admire the art of Ghost Festival Ceremony and then join us to hand down the beauty of Keelung culture.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

1.operation system:windows98, window2000 , windows XP

2.HTML editor:forntpage2000, dreamweaver MX, flash MX

3.Communication software:Express Outlook, Windows Messenger, Becky!Ver2.o

4.Image processing software:Photoimpact7.0, photoshop6.0, acdsee5.0

5.Movie production software:Microsoft Movie Maker, mediastudio pro6.5, FlasKMPEG

6.Oral interview:Telephone, camera, tape recorder

7.Digital device:Digital camera, digital video camera, scanner, laptop computer, USB Flash disc

8.Information inquiry:Culture Centers, libraries, books, newspapers

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We take turns to interview our interviewees either face to face or on the phone. For instance, we called Mr. Lai and Lan to confirm the time and place for interview; we made acquaintance with Mr. Zhou by accident when we visited Old Venerable Temple in person. We invited Zhou to our school to deliver a speech on Ghost Festival. Besides, to talk about Ghost Festival face to face with our mayor, a councilor call for us to invite Mayor Sheu. Then soon we had a beautiful gathering . As for the cyberspace for the film we made, we contacted Mr. Chang ,a graduate student in NTOU, to ask for a cyberspace. With the help of Prof. Chen , we soon have one.

We would like to give our gratitude to our principal Mr. Yo, our mayor and Mr. Lai, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Lan. We received a great deal of support from them. Zhou even said that he is thrilled to give a speech at our school. We consider it a good starting point no matter how much influence it might have at the school.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

During the research, we made contact with many local elders, even Mayor Sheu, who are all interested in our web site and quite approve our enthusiastic attitude and spirits toward the project. They gave us a lot of encouragement and support. In addition, our web site will be the model web site for our school to teach local culture. We will also pay a visit to other schools to introduce our web site. I believe people will give us advice and help us improve it. After the speech on Ghost Festival held at school, the faculty gave us much feedback with kindly intentions. We also plan to deliver the speech again for our senior high school students. We will do this at our school first and then popularize our ideas gradually.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We would like to give our gratitude to the following elders: Mayor Sheu. Thanks for setting aside some time to meet us . We really had a good time then. Councilor Huang. Thank for contacting Mayor for us. Thanks to your thorough explanation, we are able to understand the prospect of Keelung further. Zhou in Old Venerable Temple. You provided us with a lot of information and materials on Ghost Festival and gave the speech on it. Thank you. The Lai clan board chairman Mr. Lai, thank you a lot for sharing the planning and potential problems of 2003 Ghost Festival. Ho and Lan Clan Board chairman Mr. Lan. Thanks for your valuable experience on planning 2002 Ghost Festival. And of course Prof. Chen and Mr. Chang in NTOU. Thanks for providing the cyberspace so that the film could be available on the Internet. Mr. Lin , a student's father, drove for students and arrange for activities like releasing water lanterns. Thanks for your support. Most of all, we have to thank many teachers' support at school.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Our ancestors led a difficult life when they came here to open up uncivilized Taiwan early in the century. Now Taiwan has become such a rich country that people forgot our traditional culture. We even forgot our happy life is the fruits our ancestors fought an uphill battle to win. An very important purpose for Ghost Festival is to worship our ancestors. To hand down the tradition of Ghost Festival, we should start from the education, making our next generation internalize the ideas of cultural heritage.

It's a lot of effort to do this research, but we hope that our work will do good on our hometown. With more and more people joining us and handing down the tradition of Ghost Festival from generation to generation, we are satisfied and happy.