“Fucheng first, Lukang second, and Manka third” is the phrase we have heard very often from the elderly since our childhood.   Lukang, the second, refers to Lukang Township, our beautiful hometown. The name Lukang means Deer Harbor, as herds of deer used to gather here. Lukang is the first settlement in Taiwan developed by the Han people. 

The turbulent and dangerous voyages on the sea the earliest settlers to Lukang had to go through underpin their religious beliefs.  This is the reason why there are temples, big and small, everywhere in this township. Indeed, Lukang is home to over 200 temples. Take some examples. Longshan Temple is known as the Forbidden City in Taiwan, and the old Mazu Temple has a large number of religious followers all the time. Among the other famous temples are Wenwu Temple, Xinzu Temple, and Fengshan Temple. These temple architectures, internal structures, decorative sculptures, and colored paintings are the treasure of architectural traditions and the core of tourist resources for Lukang.   

As the saying goes, food is everything for the people. As attractive as the historical temples in Lukang are its street food and local cuisines. Lukang is just like a time capsule of culinary delights. The heritage of local food is as everlasting as the historical sites from hundreds of years ago.  Oyster omelets, thick vermicelli, mud shrimps, pork thick soup, and taro ball soup are the culinary feast not available even at a five-star restaurant. After the meal in Lukang comes with mouth-watering pastries.  Traditional snacks, such as ox-tongue shaped pancakes, phoenix eye cakes, and radish pastries, are the flavors unique to Lukang. This town, known for ancient architectures, traditional craftsmanship, and delicious street food, is our beautiful hometown Lukang. 

In our project, we tried to conduct a detailed survey on a traditional festival, Month of Pu-Tu in Lukang, by collecting information online and interviewing some local cultural workers. In fact, the traditional practices of Pu-Tu in Lukang nowadays are not as popular as they were before,  they were once simplified by the government about seventy years ago.  In the early days, local temples and districts organized these special banquets for ghosts in turns. It was just like people in Lukang taking turns to hold the big party in the whole July in the lunar calendar. There were various rituals in every part of Lukang at that time. However, most of them were forgotten as time went by. We, the young generation, can only hear about this from our grandparents. It is really a pity that the old tradition is gradually disappearing. Therefore, we hope our Cyberfair project can evoke the memories of Pu-Tu culture in Lukang and be like a bridge between the old and the young. The past has gone yet the present is what we own. We want to perceive the past and understand our history, and then connect and unite them into our future.

We mainly use the academic network in the computer classroom at school and the online connection is very smooth. First of all, we apply to school that everyone should be equipped with a USB drive and a shared network hard disk, so that we can upload the text files and picture files related to web-page making in the computer classroom at school. After school, when some need to catch up with our deadlines, we can also use communication softwares to continue our project, like E-mail, Facebook, and Line.

As none of us had any experience with Cyberfair, our teachers asked us to browse the winning projects from the past years to understand the organization and structuring of web page design. This was followed by the team’s discussion of the project mind map with the teachers’ guidance. Then, we brainstormed on what our titles and subtitles would be and how to divide the team into groups. Finally, we worked out a timetable so that we could stay on top of the team’s efficiency and efficacy.

We never produced web pages or used photo editing software in the past. Due to a lack of experience, we ended up repeating what we had done and sometimes overwrote or even erased data by mistake. Mr. Guo-Chang Lu, who heads IT Department in the school, then taught us how to use photo processing and webpage production software, so that we gradually developed basic capability in designing web pages. 

When we started with this project, we had no experience of interviewing other people, either. Therefore, our teachers gave us some suggestions, such as doing the drafting of interview questions, taking notes at the interview, recording by using a recording pen, and taking photos during the interview. Task assignments and dry runs beforehand ensured that we did not get too nervous during the interview. 

The time we could get together for discussions was limited because of schoolwork pressure and off-campus studies. We hence decided to dedicate the weekends to our Cyberfair project with scheduled interviews and photo taking at tourist sites. At school, we took advantage of the lunch break by discussing and working on the project at the computer classroom. However, we sometimes felt tired at class in the afternoon. It was really difficult to balance between schoolwork and the Cyberfair. 

We are very glad to participate in this competition. During the process of completing the project, we benefited a lot in various aspects.

Although it is very tiring to participate in Cyberfair project and we have to solve the various problems appearing in the process, we have learned the knowledge which cannot be acquired in the class through our mutual efforts and help, and we have developed our curiosity to explore the stories about our town. These achievements are unexpected when we participated in the Cyberfair project at the very start! During the Cyberfair project. Many enthusiasts accept our interview so that we can complete the Cyberfair project smoothly. We feel at a loss in the beginning, but we gradually know what we should do through the teachers’ guidance and the final sense of achievement is irreplaceable. Thus, we have understood each other better and seen the different ourselves in this Cyberfair project.