Day Ten: Dancing antiquities

To my surprise I slept very well in a stranger’s apartment. In the morning, Rosa and I sipped tea in our nightgowns and spoke together about our lives and family as if we’d known each other for years. I showed her some of the photos I’d taken of Monkey King and the Monkey King temples.

Suddenly, she said, "Diane, I want to tell you a story. You know Monkey King is real. I don't tell people this story because they wouldn't believe me. But it is clear to me that you believe in Monkey King and love him. So I will tell you. Outside of Taipei, about an hour, there is a cave called Water Curtain Cave. It's Monkey King's Cave. After I got married, I couldn't get pregnant. We tried and tried. So I went by myself to Monkey King's Cave. I prayed to Monkey King and I got pregnant nine months later. It's true. You will meet my daughter. She even looks a little like a monkey. She's long and thin, very smart, and tricky too. Your daughter’s name is Rachel. Her name is Chel."

For a half an hour we spoke about where we would go to breakfast and lunch but then we talked through breakfast. At last we forced ourselves to leave the apartment to go to lunch and then to the market and on to the Puppet Theatre Museum where I met with its founder, Robin Ruizendaaal. We discussed the possibility of incorporating puppets into the production. He advised me to go to meet another Taiwanese puppeteer that night.