Another amazing wonder in Tainan: 500 netizens use phone lights to spell out a message for the Garden Night Market

Reported by You Ru / Taipei

At the end of 2013, Facebook officially released a list of the world’s most shared content, and Taiwan’s most popular check-in spot, the “Garden Night Market,” actually ranked 12th globally. To build on this momentum and further promote Tainan’s night markets, the Tainan City Government Tourism Bureau collaborated with blogger Huang Da Huang on a time-lapse photography project at the Garden Night Market. Yesterday evening (the 11th), 500 netizens gathered at the Garden Night Market to collectively display the giant message “Garden NO.1” formed by the lights of their mobile phone flashlights – an absolutely spectacular sight.


▲ On the evening of January 11th from 5:30 PM, 500 netizens gathered in the parking lot of the Garden Night Market to form the giant message “Garden NO.1” using the lights of their mobile phone flashlights.

The goal is to promote Taiwan’s vibrant night market culture, the essence of everyday life, through direct visual imagery. Time-lapse photography involves taking continuous shots of a changing scene at intervals of several seconds each, then playing them back at 30 frames per second to create a flowing visual effect. After multiple communications with the Garden Night Market Management Committee and on-site location scouting, the project received full support from Wu Szu-yi, the chairperson of the Garden Night Market. Huang Da Huang noted that he has visited the site for shooting about five times over the past few weeks, including two all-night shoots where he stayed with the camera the entire time.

As the approximately three-minute time-lapse video was nearing completion, Huang Da Huang came up with a spontaneous idea: to rally 500 night market enthusiasts to gather in the Garden Night Market parking lot and jointly create what seemed like a wild final shot. On Thursday, Huang announced on Facebook, calling for 500 netizens to come to the Garden Night Market parking lot at 5:30 PM on January 11th to form the giant message “Garden NO.1” using their phone flashlights, which he would capture from above to create an alternative “miracle of the people of Tainan.” That post garnered over 4,000 likes and supportive comments that same evening, and the event turned out to be a great success.


▲ Captured from above, creating an alternative “miracle of the people of Tainan.”