| Q1：When did Dream Carnival start? |
A1：The first one was held in 2002. It is held in October annually.
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| Q2：Why did you hold Dream Carnival? Is there any meaning? |
A2：The previous two years before the carnival, there were serious floods in Shizhi. People connect Shizhi directly to floods. Residents were disappointed in this place. Our chairman Mr. Tsai was aware of residents lack of affections to the community and neighbors. Everyone wanted to live in a good environment but put no effort to make it good. For them, the community is just their assets where they can rest and sleep after daily work. Mr. Tsai borrowed the experience of Fremont community in Seattle. He wanted to hold a carnival which residents of the community can join together. It could become a consensus. It is an event to shorten social distance, to present creativity, and to unleash burdens.
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Q3：How did you decide the theme of the carnival each year? |
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A3：Taiwanese are too used to follow teachers’ ideas. Only when students heard the topic from the teacher, they start to think or act. Without a topic, students have no clues what they’re going to do. We hope people break through such a passive, restricted, and fear-to-err thought. There is no set theme for the parade. All participants are welcomed to follow their ideas and dreams and do whatever they want. Let their creativities soar. Without restriction, they are able to free their imagination.
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Q4：How much time does it need to plan the carnival each year? |
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A4：We plan the carnivals all year long. We visit areas around Taiwan during the year, help communities in other cities and counties to establish their characteristics and hold activities. We invite those teams who have their characteristics to join Dream Carnival in Tapiei.
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Q5：What are the responsibilities in your position? What difficulties have you met? |
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A5：Almost all affairs about the carnival are my responsibility, such as activity planning, venue application, participant selecting and contact. Because it is not easy to change the conservative ideas rooting deeply in Taiwanese’s minds, I have difficulties in promoting the carnival. Especially when we have trained children around Taiwan, like we sow the seeds and they sprouted, but the children will graduate from the school. Then there comes the gap.
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Q6：How do you promote the carnival? |
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A6：The event is mostlyadvertised by word-of-mouth. We tried to promote it by mass media, but the cost-effect is not that good. Now that we are reaching for the 10th anniversary, we have cumulated enough positive public praises and stable source of members.
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Q7：What is the source of budget? |
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A7：Our founder Mr. Tsai is the owner of a construction company. Part of his revenue is spent on the carnival. It is flexible to use the budget because we don’t rely on supports form the government.
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Q8：How many people are joining the carnival each year? |
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A8：The number of participants has increased gradually since the 1st Dream Carnival. These years, we limited the number within 50 to 60 people in one team, and roughly 65 teams in total. We used to have too many teams and prolonged the parade. It caused negative feelings to the participants and watchers. Now we select the participants. For those not well-established enough, we help them to hold smaller size carnivals in their area.
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Q9：Why is the logo of Dream Community a sun? |
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A9：We use the sun as our logo to encourage residents to put passions in constructing the community. The logo was designed for the convenience of recognition when our volunteers do services in other communities and schools. We found it too systematic. Therefore we barely use this logo now.
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Q10：What is the goal of Foundation of Dream Community? What other services does the foundation do other than Dream Carnival? |
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A10：Foundation of Dream Community was established in 2000. As I mentioned at the beginning, we hope to gather all residents of the community together, and the residents use their passions to participate in community affairs. Except for Dream Carnival every October, there are events like Beer Festival in July or August, Story Carnival, and Indian Cultural Carnival. We don't allow residents of Dream Carnival to participate in these events. People from other areas are more than welcome to join us. Members from the foundation also go to communities and schools in other areas around Taiwan and facilitate them holding events of local features.
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