It looks like something akin to the dian-tze-hua-che has hit Shanghai, Done with the eulogy? Bring out the strippers!. Folks in rural areas have started bringing in strippers for funerals in an effort to increase the number of people who come (more folks at a funeral means more good fortune).

The photo in the article looks like a number of the dian-ze-hua-chua (Electric Flower Music Car, or Music Car) that I saw when I first arrived in Taiwan seventeen years ago. I would tool about on my motorbike (okay, it was a crappy little scooter thing but it was mine) on random roads. The first time I saw one I was on a rural road and heard music and came upon a flatbed truck with lights setup with music playing and a very beautifully dressed girl singing. I thought “cool, a show” as I have BA and MA degrees in theatre that was very nifty indeed. The song finished, she went backstage and the lights came up very bright so I figured the show must have been over . . . not so, the music kicked in again and the girls walks out singing . . . stark naked . . . needless to say, I stayed and enjoyed the rest of the program.

Music Cars would park on the side of the road and stippers would perform in the open. They were usually seen at temple festivals, funerals, and weddings (yes, weddings). The more clothing stripped was an indication of how much wealth the hosts had to spend.

They didn’t just strip though, I have seen Music Cars with live sex gimmicks. And once saw an incredibly powerful performance in a night market in Huwei where a Taoist priest used strippers to gather a crowd at midnight and then he performed a ritual to summon an evil spirit whose essence he captured (you could FEEL the quality of the air shift during the ritual and most folks were beyond terrified). He then burned the spell sheets and placed the ashes into a mixture to sell as a cure-all. Yes, an honest to whatever medicine man snake oil salesman.

After I moved to Taipei, didn’t see that many Music Cars as Taipei is too “sophisticated” for such rural goings on (that means too conservative for fun). I have seen a few but very few of those stripped further than a bikini (although I did see a few of those as well). The Music Car phenomenon has dwindled to a fraction of what it used to be . . . albeit the Betelnut Beauty is still around.