I am Chi-ming Nien. When I was in elementary school, I had painted on lanterns, which were round colored lanterns with a diameter of 20 cm. At the time, I had high expectations. The teacher told us to bring coloring pens or watercolors. I was very afraid that I would break the lantern, because I brought watercolor, so I try to make the brush not very wet before I color. When holding the watercolor brush, my hand tends to shake, so paint would get on my lantern. It took me about two class periods to complete one lantern.

     I am Pai-chi Cheng. I don¡¦t know a lot about lanterns, I just remember that the lanterns I carried when I was young were made out of paper and batteries. When I saw the intricate lanterns, I realized that I really did not know much. There are traditional, silk cloth, and various kinds of lanterns, which astonished me and I paid a lot of attention to them. It is difficult to make a good lantern. I could not do anything but give up on boring and tedious processes, but it is a lot of fun to make lanterns. Even though it is troublesome, I still hope that I will have these experiences again next time.

    I am Yi-min Chou. When I was little, I have only seen lanterns that I assembled and then put a light bulb in them. Before, I had no idea that making a lantern would be so much work, especially the part of weaving the bamboo. It was pretty confusing, but a master can be sitting in an interview with us while weaving bamboo. As they say, ¡§experience counts,¡¨ and this was really true for the masters. Even though weaving bamboo is difficult, it is great to have had this experience, and I hope I will be able to do it again.

         I am Hsiao-chu Shao. My impression of ¡§lanterns¡¨ is basically that colorful papers cover candles or light bulbs, and they are pretty at night when they are lit. The experience in making lanterns shows that even though handmade lanterns take so much time and effort, the final product is not less good than machine-made lanterns. Seeing the calloused and wrinkled hands of the master, we know that there is always a lot of time and sweat behind success, to make a perfect lantern.

         I am You-chi Chen. In Lukang, lanterns are everywhere; they are in temples and on old streets, and some streets even have lanterns replacing streetlamps. Participation in the Cyberfair project began my experiences with lanterns. It takes a lot of time to learn how to make lanterns, and there are currently not many lantern masters in Taiwan, so some of them learned how to make lanterns in China, but some also taught themselves. I am in awe of all lantern masters who were able to learn this art.

         I am Ming-yun Shih. When I was young, I held the most traditional paper lanterns with some patterns on them. Now, the lanterns take many different forms, and their designs are safer. In order to understand lanterns, all the members listened carefully to the master¡¦s explanations, which helped us understand that lanterns are a field of knowledge that requires a lot of technique. During the second visit to a master of woven bamboo lanterns, we not only listened to the master¡¦s explanations, but also experienced the cutting and weaving of bamboo. This taught me that it is not an easy thing to learn traditional techniques.

         I am Pei-tsu Shih, when I was little I had light bulb-type lanterns. Originally I thought it would be very easy to make lanterns. After participating in this activity, I realized that there were actually many different types of lanterns, each with different steps and production methods. I tried to peel off the outer layer of the bamboo. Even in cutting open a complete stalk of bamboo, I was scared that I would cut my hand, and I was also scared of cutting it crooked. This takes a lot of technique, and I was able to complete it with demonstration from the masters! After personally experiencing it, I understood the steps and important issues in making lanterns! After all, it requires a lot of study to make lanterns!