Announce Department：General Affairs Department
Apr. 29, 2011
Series Report by Reporter Tsai Chun-Sheng
The manual Centipede Stand was made to become the pride of Kinmen! In order to celebrate the Woodao City God Relocation Festival this time, Kinmen County Government and Jincheng Township Office had especially prolonged the period of this festival to be one month. In addition to the activities such as God’s Palankeen, Makeup People March and more, the most eye-catching focus was the initiative of applying for Guinness World Records of the Thousand-People Centipede Stand. Such an activity was able to spread the exposure of art arrays, and the accomplishment of it required local people’s enthusiastic help, so that the manual Centipede Stand and the Woodao City God Relocation Festival would be created as the pride of Kinmen.
The host unit was Jincheng Township. According to the Township Mayor Shih Chao-Min, it took much time to make the application for the record of the manual Centipede Stand. They had to contact the Guinness World Records Association in the UK, and they had to invite the association’s certification officer to conduct on-the-spot research in Kinmen. Luckily, through the contact made by related personnel, an approval was gained from the association now, and it agreed that they can report the application for Guinness World Records regarding this longest manual centipede array. However, the record would not be valid until it had been recognized and approved by the certification officer in the end. Therefore, the Township Office invited all the people to create a world record for Kinmen together.
Yang Chen-Wu, Director-general of Transportation and Tourism Bureau at Kinmen County Government, also pointed out “If others can achieve this, so does Kinmen!” People often hear that a group works together to apply for Guinness World Records. For creating their exposure, many countries and cities often hold group activities to apply for world records, ex. the report on the suchi eaten jointly by one thousand of persons in Japan, the application of the Tai Chi performed by ten thousand of persons in Taiwan, and the report on the family reading by one thousand of persons in Changhua. All of these were the outcome of group cooperation, also symbolizing the extension of the masses’ power.
The Guinness World Records applied this time had special meaning to Kinmen. This record is so precious, because it was applied in the name of “purely-manual” Centipede Stand that was accomplished without any mechanical help. Besides, by holding the manual Centipede Stand this time, we were not only able to re-perform the array culture exclusive in Kinmen, but also able to manifest the spirit of cooperation and unselfishness shown by ancestors in festivals. The elders in Kinmen all strived for taking the lead when the array of Centipede Stand began. They were volunteers participating in this meaningful event.
Legend has it that children will be “smart, healthy and well-raised” in the future if they can participate in the Centipede Stand and the Makeup People, and that the persons who participate in carrying on the Centipede Stand voluntarily will be blessed by God; thus, people will be safe and smooth in both schoolwork and business, emphasized by Shih Chao-Min. He believed: The participation in this Centipede Stand to apply for Guinness World Records not only made us experience local culture, but also made Kinmen leave its name in the history, through the City God’s blessings on the participants in this festival.