Unleash the Wild Within: How Urban Wildlife is Redefining City Living

Taipei in recent yearsday and night“From carnival at night to night party the next morning, it has become a trendy activity for young people. But this year (2024) there is a big change, centered on Daan Forest Park, a “Nocturnal Animal Party” will be held on November 2. This “Party Animal” The activities may be a little different from what people had imagined these activities include environmental lectures, guided tours and to give the wild animals and plants in the park a good rest even though the event time started at 2 pm and ended at 2 am.

Organizers say wild animals are not far from urban people, and they hope to bring Taiwan’s ecological and environmental issues into people’s daily lives through an arts and cultural event with about 400,000 participants.

Day nights shouldn’t just be carnivals, there can be more environmental awareness

Nuit Blanche originated in 2002 in Paris, France. It is an art and culture combined civic issue event from 6 pm to 6 am the next morning. Over the past 20 years, cities in more than 30 countries around the world have responded Taiwan was launched in 2016. Starting with the Taipei North Gate Renaissance movement, activities have also been held in Gongguan, Nangang, Shilin and other areas.

This year the curatorial team chose the Da’an district as the location and used the “lungs of the city” Da’an Forest Park as the activity center with 7 events.Environmental lecture hall10 gamesRead Environmental Dayand 1 game”Parliament of all things“, focusing on the four main themes of mountains, rivers, seas and land, urban environmental issues will also be discussed through the introduction of species. The main scene of the event refers to the special species of the park, such as Swinhoe’s climbing lizard, Chinese soft-shelled turtle, red-bellied squirrel , night heron, Pangea toad and other animal elements.

People participating in the “Parliament of All Animals” will understand the environmental crises of different species through role playing and discussion. Image source: Day Night 2024 website

Blonde and fashionable event art director Chen Yi laughed in an interview with the Environmental Information Center and said that he was not an outdoorsman in the past, but he became familiar with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Biodiversity Institute through curatorial activities. A few years ago and learned that there are people in ecology, “wild animals have their own rules of survival, and they are not so far away through visits, activities and role-playing.” Switch to animal view and “Summon your wildness!”; More importantly, besides exploring the outside, the event will lead the public to explore the inside, how humans, as part of the animal family, live and survive together with these companions.

Zhongsen Nature Studio founder Liu Changqing, who is responsible for ecological activities, said frankly that he was “quite worried” when he first learned that the location was in Dan Forest Park, fearing that crowds would flock to an ecological park. “I thought, ‘Is this good?'” But Chen Yiji asks him, are there any opportunities for townspeople to learn more about the land beneath their feet? They feel that Day Night should not be limited to the imagination of thousands of people, on the contrary, it can be an educational channel that combines environment, city and art. “

With participation in the pipeline, experience can be built. Chen Yi gave an example, he once followed an ecological group in the mountains, used light to attract insects, then photographed them, stuck their body lines, and this microscopic method was “a great experience”, “although we often return without success. came. In exploring the reasons that there was a lack of water and the number of bugs decreased significantly “You will see that we are used to using our tools and methods to master our lives in the city. Nature, you have to cooperate you have to wait, observe and make what you want out of it.

In addition to being aware of the urban ecology of the industrial team, the 200 volunteers recruited this year will also have to undergo training on urban environmental issues. may be due to.” Chang Qing said that he took volunteers to visit the park, and after the end, many of the volunteers stayed to ask questions. “The plant is a seed in every volunteer, and you can plant it while delivering the message.”

Liu Changqing led “Day Night” volunteers to conduct urban ecology training in early October. Photo Credit: Provided by Liu Changqing

Across generations, we most hope that residents and district heads will participate together.

But in the past the day and night activities have been stopped by the surrounding residents.complaint“Too noisy”, how to reduce the impact of more about wild animals this time? Chen Yi replied jokingly: “Give the residents earplugs, haha!”

In fact, they do not perform any stage after 10 o’clock in the event time, and the whole program ends at 2 o’clock, such as lectures and night yoga.

Apart from this, dimming the lights including street lights in the park will reduce the brightness, this is also a new effort. It appears that the Friends of Dan Forest Park Foundation has always proposed to the Taipei City Public Works Bureau Park Street Light Engineering Office to dim the lights in the garden, but the Public Department has refused due to public safety considerations. , our eyes can adapt to all kinds of light. If you think everything is too bright, you must be in too bright an environment, which is actually quite harmful to your eyes.”

Day and Night 2024 Ecological Lecture Schedule. Image source: Day Night 2024 website

This seemingly constant day and night activity, is actually the hardest levellength. “I think the 1999 (hotline) will still be destroyed,” Chen Yi said, looking at Changqing. In early April, they met with the district head, who was worried that the residents were too noisy, “young people would be intemperate smoking and drinking”. The traffic will be paralyzed “They expressed very horrible, very intense and a lot of reactions,” I hope we are not on this side.

Chen Yi first thought, “It’s New Year’s Eve, Taipei City is fine, right?” “Our generation communicates very quickly and can quickly change your way of thinking or living habits. The smaller the group, the more. But he (Li Chang) does not live like this and he is not exposed to this kind of education. “Every process activity of the residents is daily. Exercise and dog walking can affect.”

“How did you impress them afterwards?” Chen Yi smiled when faced with the reporter’s question. “I don’t know if I’ll impress them, but I’ll take it.”

He said that in the past, daytime nights were “the extreme end of urban activity” – young people, very trendy, electronic music performances and very street-like “but these urban things, such as Ximending, Zhongshan District and Jini District, it’s a lot more every weekend.”

He wants to “bring the people back a little” and explore the city’s potential from an ecological and land perspective “Many people think that housing prices are too expensive in Daan District, and residents also have some misunderstandings. Young people also care about the environment. It’s a conversation!

Chen Yi believes that environmental awareness is the current trend, and the basic patterns of food, clothing, housing, and transportation are environmental awareness. “But I have to be honest. It’s not going to be an overnight success, but it’s going to have an impact over time.”

Day and Night 2024 Ecological Reading Schedule. Image source: Day Night 2024 website