CyberFair Project ID: 7592

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2013/gsh7592/index.htm
Bibliography: http://163.20.181.18/~cyberfair2013/national

School: NewTaipei Municipal Jin-Shan High School
    New Taipei City, Taiwan, Taiwan

11 students, ages 16-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 19, 2013. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2009,2010,2011,2012

Classes and Teachers: Chin-Lung Lee, Chien-Hsuan Wu, Wan-Ching Chen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.cshs.ntpc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Tzehu Temple is commonly known as the “Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple Ma-zu Temple”, located at Da-dong district, Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple street. Jin-Shan is located at the north-east corner of Taiwan, with its back to the mountains and facing the ocean, right next to the Pacific and the Taiwan Strait, its old name “Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple” is translated from the ethnic community name of the Ping Pu tribe. This place was originally exploited (cultivated) by the Ping Pu Tribe. At the end of Qing dynasty, immigrants from Zhang Zhou and Quan Zhou of the Fu Jian Province successively moved here to develop, to settle down. During the Japanese occupation era, the Japanese kept the “Jin” word from “Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple” , and changed its name to “Jin-Shan(mountain)” Due to the fact that this place is surrounded by mountains from three sides. After the retrocession of Taiwan, its name was changed to “Jin-Shan town” in accordance to its original name. As of today, it is called the Jin-Shan district. Jin-Shan Old Street is the oldest street in Jin-Shan. Most of the architectures alongside both sides of the Jin-Shan Old Street are already reconstructed and only few remain its same appearance. Tzehu Temple, located at the head of Old Street, is the place where Jin-Shan people worship Ma-zu, and also a Religious center for the locals. Due to it being very efficacious, a lot of people come and pray there. Therefore, Tzehu Temple is one of the most famous temples in the Jin-Shan area and further regarded as the center of religion for the locals.

2. Summary of Our Project

The Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple Tzehu Temple is located at New Taipei City Jin-Shan District, commonly known as The“ Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple Ma-zu Temple”, as the center of faith for the whole town, the towns’ people also calls it the “ Great Temple” out of respect. The Tzehu Temple mainly worships “The Holy Mother of Heaven” (commonly known as “Ma-zu”). According to legends passed on by the elders, during the early Qing dynasty when the ancestors of this habitat sailed to Taiwan and started cultivating the land in the early stage, they requested that the “Golden Face Ma-zu” come with them, to guard the area and protect its people. Before Tzehu temple was built, there was already a small shrine established with Ma-zu enshrined. Its location today is located near the edge of the mountain at Zhong-shan Park behind Ci Hu Temple. At the fourteenth year of Jia-qing (1809) when the Tian-hou temple was completed, people respectfully called this statue “The great Golden face Ma-zu of inauguration”, and the Ma-zu statue brought back from Ye-Liu was given the honorific title of “ The second Ma-zu”(er-ma). “Tzehu Temple” is the most large-scaled temple within Jin-Shan, mainly worshiping the “Golden Face Ma-zu”. This Jin-Shan Tzehu Temple which contains 200 years of history, is not only the most important Ma-zu Temple at the north coast, but also because of a folk legend, derived a story of the magical marriage about Ma-zu going to Ye-Liu as a guest . Through this monographic study (thematic research), we explored the history, culture, activities, statues, architecture, legend, and charity events etc. of the Tzehu Temple. We also learned from the interviewees about the respect and gratitude that the public has towards Ma Zu.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Although we faced numerous problems during the process, we were able to work together, be persistence and perseverance, to overcome these problems. (1) Insufficient data (lack of information): The information on relevant researches regarding the architecture of the temple is scarce, but after much effort we found some relevant books and documents, which helped us in the progress of our research. (2) Technical obstacles (issues): Due to our lack of experience in using computer software, and members still being in the learning stage, we often encounter technical problems. We also spent a lot of time to classify and organize during the process of aggregation, because of the vast amount of documents and photo contents that needs to be processed. (3) The team facing disagreement : Because the research is being done by the whole group, each person having separate opinions is inevitable. But, we worked through and overcame these situations during the process, and learned the spirit of teamwork. (4) Difficult to coordinate on schedule: Because there is eleven people in the research group, and each person having their own business to attend to during the weekdays, we discussed and arranged to use the time in the afternoon after 5 o’clock when class is dismissed, and on holidays. Additional parts of work were done separately in every one’s own home. (5) Uneasy to grasp The rate of progress : Although different tasks were already assigned to each member, in actual operation, team members would delay the progress rate of the original plan because of the different contents each task contains, or due to the encounter of different situations. Thus causing the tasks that follows unable to proceed on schedule. Fortunately, by helping each other, and constantly encouraging each other, we were able to finish this website.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Participating in this Cyberfair (exhibition) consists of several major significances --- so that students learn how to configure and establish a complete website, to participate in the competition, to observe the good or bad qualities the other contestants’ website contains, to learn to work as a team through division of labor, and to learn things that goes beyond the classroom. In order to let us discover what we lack, understand Taiwan’s unique architecture and folk culture, and promote it internationally.

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

The members of production for this project are students in the Information Application Program, language courses, IT courses, and business courses are the spindle courses for this program. Through competing in this competition, it well let us apply the skills we have learned in our courses to practical use, in constructing a complete website. Using this opportunity to train us, and also can be considered an acceptance of our learning. We do not have experience in constructing a website. So, using the production of this project, we learned the ability to integrate data, skills in business marketing, and the skills required to build a website. In this process we learned the concept of cooperative learning, using these fragments of data to finish a completely concrete and usable website. The Information Application Program is considered the vanguard of information in the school, which requires more actual practical training. However, the education system now lacks in scientific integration, students also lack of practical training. This is a crucial part that needs to be reinforced. Therefore, we hope through the process of website creation, to achieve a course learning that is not teachable in the in the classroom, and to absorb new knowledge in learning new things. Now that the technology is well developed, it is easy to retrieve all kinds of information from the internet; data is also able to transfer fast through the internet. Online teaching also provides a platform for the sharing of knowledge. This is a part that traditional teaching cannot provide, a part which greatly improves the efficiency in teaching and learning.

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Project Elements

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

The information tools we used for this project includes 30 desktop computers, 1 vertical server, 11 cellphones, 3 digital cameras, 6 kinds of computer software, and 4 interviews. These tools helped us aggregate (gather), record, collate information, and produce the website from mere data. Other than the teacher and students personal computers and cellphones being either on themselves or at home, all the computers, vertical server, digital cameras, computer software etc. are all property of the school, placed at the school’s computer classroom and equipment room. Among the equipment used during the research process, the most valuable are the computers and its soft wares, and the website production technology plays the most important role in the entire production process of the project. If lacking these technologies, no matter how good the content, it cannot be presented to everybody.

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

Kimbaoli Tzehu Temple is the most large-scale Temple within Jin-Shan, we hope by researching on this topic, to let everyone recognize Jin-Shan Tzehu Temple’s history of establishment, culture, architecture, and statues etc. We personally visit the largest-scaled temple in Jin-Shan, and hope to flourish the temple’s culture and tradition, and do in-depth discussions and analyze these meaningful data to produce it as a website and enter it into a competition. Through the circulation of the internet, introduce Jin-Shan’s local historical monuments for everybody to recognize. To participate in an international network competition like this, we are both pleasantly surprised and scared. Everybody knows through word of mouth that the Information Application program students are competing in a website competition, in contrast to the general image of just learning professional skills. Other students are all casting envious looks at us, making us fell deeply honored.

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

It is our first time participating in a project production for the international Cyberfair, this is a big breakthrough for us, to not be limited to the textbooks in learning, and also a challenge. We hope to promote the ethos for website production projects among our schoolmates and learn to cooperate as a group, not working on one’s own individually. From the contents of our webpage, people in the community can learn and familiarize on Tzehu Temple’s culture through our website. We also hope that at the same time, by doing so will let the international personals understand more about the unique historical monuments that are in Taiwan.

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

In the course of our research, we visited the Jin-Shan Tzehu Temple, and had the special experience of being able to experience deeper by being granted the permission to take up-close photographs of Matsu. We have the director, supervisor, and staffs to thank for this opportunity and for helping us obtain a lot of first-hand information. We also went to the library, and with the help of the lady librarian we successfully found relevant books to our research. The school provided us with the computer equipment we needed as well as classrooms for us to use. In addition, we also gained some assistance from religious followers during interview, thus allowing us to gather their valuable advices and Ideas. We divided in to several groups, and started with reading information on the web and agricultural calendar, and also went to Jin-Shan Tzehu Temple personally to visit and do interviews. That is how we gathered information on legends and historical cultures related to Tzehu Temple.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

In the course of producing this project we encountered some difficulties---- lack of information capacity, not knowing how to configure web pages and do interviews, and lack of ability to integrate data. Although some of these we have learned before in class, but rarely had the chance to apply them. Therefore, taking advantage of this opportunity for us to practice is of great help to us. In the beginning, we didn’t know the first thing about how to compete in the Cyberfair, but with the help and guidance given from teachers and senior students, we gradually learned how to produce on this research topic and join the competition. During the thematic production process, we gave full platy to the spirit of teamwork and overcame many difficulties to complete this project, that itself is quite reassuring. The theme of this research is about Jin-Shan Tzehu Temple, and although some of the members grew up in Jin-Shan, they are not very familiar with Tzehu Temple. Thus, we were able to gain a deeper insight in to the origins, the allusions, and the process of historical evolutions of the Tzehu Temple Matsu. After going through this research project, we realized that by operating as a team, things were easier to be done and done better. The spirit of teamwork is essentially important.

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