Taiwanese Culture and Etiquette: Temples, Customs and Festivals

Religion in Taiwan is practical and crowded. People visit a temple before an exam, a job interview, a wedding or a long trip, light incense, ask a question of the gods and leave. You are welcome to do the same or simply watch. Bangka Lungshan Temple in Taipei’s Wanhua district is the classic first visit, with Guanyin in the main hall and Mazu, the God of Literature and the Old Man Under the Moon (the matchmaker) behind. In Tainan, the island’s oldest city, temples sit on almost every block, and the south is where temple culture is most intense.

How to visit a folk temple: - Enter through the right-hand door (the dragon side, as you face the temple) and leave by the left (tiger side). Step over the raised threshold, never on it. - Incense: many big temples, including Lungshan, have cut back or removed incense burners to reduce smoke, so follow what locals do. Where it is used, hold the sticks at chest height, bow three times and place them in the burner. - Moon blocks (jiaobei): two crescent-shaped red blocks dropped on the floor after you ask a yes-or-no question. One flat side up and one round side up means yes; ask again if they land the same way. - Fortune sticks (qian): shake the cylinder until a numbered stick falls, confirm it with the moon blocks, then collect the matching paper slip. Some temples have English translations. - Dress and behaviour: folk temples have no strict dress code, but cover up for Buddhist monasteries such as Fo Guang Shan near Kaohsiung (shoulders and knees covered, no short shorts). Do not point at deity statues or photograph worshippers’ faces at close range, and keep out of the way of people praying.

Daily manners in Taiwan come down to not inconveniencing other people. On the Taipei and Kaohsiung metros you cannot eat, drink or chew gum past the ticket gates, and inspectors do issue fines. The dark-blue priority seats stay empty even on crowded trains unless an older, pregnant or disabled passenger needs one. Queue lines are painted on platforms, and people wait for passengers to get off before boarding. On Taipei escalators, stand on the right.

Rubbish is the surprise for most visitors. Public bins are rare, because households take their sorted waste to garbage trucks that play classical music (usually Beethoven’s Für Elise) as they arrive in the evening. Carry your rubbish to a convenience store, your hotel or a station, and use the separate slots for general waste, recycling and food waste where they exist.

Other habits worth copying: - Shoes: take them off in homes, some guesthouses and B&Bs, and anywhere you see a row of slippers at the door. - Hand things over with both hands: money, business cards, gifts and documents. Receive them the same way. - Greetings: a nod or light handshake is normal; nobody expects a bow or a hug. Use family names and titles in formal settings. - Volume: keep phone calls short and quiet on public transport. - Tipping: not done. Sit-down restaurants and hotels add a 10% service charge, and nobody tips in taxis, cafes or at night markets.

Like much of East Asia, Taiwan runs on “face”: nobody wants to be embarrassed or to embarrass someone else in public. Complaints work best when calm and private, and a polite “maybe” or “it is a bit difficult” usually means no. Older people get deference, the best seat and the first serving. Punctuality is expected for business and tours, more relaxed among friends.

If you are invited to a home, bring fruit, cakes or a gift from your country and present it with both hands; your host may decline once or twice before accepting and will not open it in front of you. Avoid these gifts and signs: - Clocks: “giving a clock” (song zhong) sounds like attending a funeral. - Umbrellas and pears: both words sound like “separation”. - Sharp objects: they suggest cutting a relationship. - The number 4 sounds like death; many buildings skip the fourth floor. Eight is lucky. - Red ink for names and white or black wrapping, which are associated with death.

Politics is less touchy than many visitors expect, and people are often happy to talk about elections or identity. Most people describe themselves as Taiwanese, and the island’s relationship with China is a serious subject: listen more than you lecture, and avoid calling Taiwan “part of China” as if it were settled fact.

Taiwan’s Austronesian peoples were here thousands of years before Han settlers, and most linguists place the homeland of the Austronesian languages, spoken from Madagascar to Hawaii, on the island. The largest group, the Amis, live along the east coast around Hualien and Taitung; the Atayal and Truku in the northern mountains and around Taroko; the Paiwan and Rukai in the south; the Bunun in the central ranges; and the Tao on Orchid Island.

Most festivals follow the lunar calendar, so dates move each year. The big ones:

During Ghost Month, older Taiwanese avoid swimming, moving house and whistling at night, and you should not step on or pick up the offerings and paper money left on pavements. Keelung’s Ghost Festival is the most spectacular. For which festivals suit which travel dates, see our best time to visit Taiwan guide.

Glove puppetry (budaixi) is Taiwan’s signature folk theatre: elaborately costumed hand puppets performing martial-arts epics to a live percussion band, once staged in front of temples for the gods. The Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum in Dadaocheng, in Taipei’s Ximending and Dadaocheng area, runs performances and workshops, and temple festivals in the south still hire troupes. Taiwanese opera (gezaixi), sung in Hokkien, plays at temple fairs and on outdoor stages; Taipei Eye on Zhongshan North Road stages short, subtitled shows of Peking opera, puppetry and Indigenous dance aimed at visitors.

Tea is the island’s other religion. High-mountain oolong from Alishan and Lishan, Baozhong from Pinglin, Oriental Beauty from Hsinchu’s hills and red (black) tea from around Sun Moon Lake are the names to know. Teahouses serve gongfu style: a small pot, tiny cups and several short infusions of the same leaves, with a tea set fee plus a charge for the leaves. Maokong, at the top of the Maokong Gondola in southern Taipei, is the easiest tea village to reach, and Jiufen’s hillside teahouses come with sea views. Bubble tea was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s, and the Taichung teahouse Chun Shui Tang claims to be its birthplace.

At the table, dishes are shared, rice is eaten from a bowl held near your mouth, and chopsticks should never be stood upright in rice (it looks like funeral incense). Vegetarian food is unusually easy to find because of Buddhism: look for the character 素 (su) on signs. For dishes, prices and night markets, see our Taipei food guide.

Taiwan is relaxed, but a few rules catch visitors out: - Meat products: bringing pork, sausages, jerky or meat-filled snacks into Taiwan, even in instant noodles, is strictly banned because of African swine fever. Fines for a first offence start at around NT$200,000 (over US$6,000) and are enforced at arrival. - E-cigarettes and vapes are illegal to import, sell or use; customs confiscate them and users are fined. Only approved heated-tobacco products are legal. - Drugs: penalties are severe, including the death penalty for trafficking serious drugs. Cannabis and CBD products containing THC are illegal. - Smoking is banned indoors in public places, at bus stops, in parks in many cities and near station entrances. Use the marked smoking areas. - Eating or drinking on the MRT, including water, brings a fine. - Drones need permission near airports, government buildings and in national parks. - Taking rocks, coral or shells from national parks such as Kenting and Penghu is prohibited.

Taiwan uses traditional Chinese characters and Mandarin in pinyin is understood everywhere; a little Taiwanese Hokkien earns a smile in markets and in the south.

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