“Mazu,”
Lin Wei-Lun
10x15 cm
46 pages
Hand made binding
Design by Louis Montes
Published in Novemebr 2025
Winner of Landskrona Foto & Breadfield Dummy Award 2024
ISBN 979-12-80177-49-0
Witty #106
30€
Order here︎︎
Mazu, the sea goddess who arrived in Taiwan from the Chinese mainland three centuries ago, is seen today not only as the protector of the island’s fishermen and sailors, but as the guardian deity of Taiwan as a whole. Over a period of geopolitical
instability in the region, heightened by U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, Wei-Lun made this series ofpostcards to ask for Mazu’s protection.
The photographs printed on the postcards document Wei-Lun’s personal journey and his investigation into the impact of Pelosi’svisit on himself and other Taiwanese people around him. In line with the Taoist tradition of burning offerings to gods, Wei-Lun attached stamps made of gold joss paper to the postcards and set themalight, thus delivering them to Mazu.
As Mazu is an important religious figure in both China and Taiwan, Chinese state media has been using this shared connection as an opportunity for propaganda since the late 1990s, emphasising common cultural roots in order to promote the idea of unity between China and the Taiwanese people.
