“Bombing the Dragon” is a unique local custom of the Hakka people, part of marketing how the Hakka “welcome the dragon” on Lantern Festival night, and an example of Taiwan’s dragon dance culture. This unique Hakka custom has, since 1989, successfully attracted the attention of people throughout all of Taiwan, and has even gained international notice. From the early period when it was just a local custom, it gradually transformed into one of Taiwan’s four major local Lantern Festival cultural traditions, subsequently becoming a Lantern Festival folk event of the “Twelve Hakka Festivities.” In recent years “bombing the dragon” has become a key expression of Hakka “dragon culture.” To develop local tourism, seek economic development, attract crowds of tourists and use dragon culture to “empower the community” and create a tourist site, it markets traditional Hakka dragon culture. A series of “Miaoli Bomb the Dragon” activities takes place in accordance with a schedule that roughly breaks down into four major areas: putting the finishing touch on the auspicious dragon—dragon dance competition, street parade, night of bombing the dragon, burning the dragon and his ascent to Heaven, and a display of characteristic Hakka products. This yearly event can be said to “throw out the old, and welcome the new” with the goals all focused on attracting tourists to share in this grand occasion. In the last few years to promote local tourism on an international level and to conform to the global trend toward the sustainable development of environmental resources, the “Miaoli Bombing the Dragon” event has gradually moved toward tourism and on the night of the street parade and the bombing of the dragon, Taiwanese and foreign performing art groups are invited to attend this grand yearly event together, where their brilliant performances make it seem like an overseas carnival.
