Reader Responses: Ghost Stories, the Immigrant Multiverse, old school Hong Kong pop, and more

Plus, we visit the Ensemble Hall (聲泊廳) in Yunlin County and the upcoming Ukrainian Village in Taipei

Hello from Yunlin County, a rural province on the western coast of Taiwan. The name “Yunlin” is itself poetic: it literally translates to “Cloud Woods,” a nod to the gorgeous trees and clouds in the area.

Today Yunlin is known for its garlic and peanuts, as well as its excellent rice, which was exported straight to the Japanese emperor during colonial times. (As a sidenote, Yulin sometimes is called the “Sicily” of Taiwan, as the Taiwanese mafia used to work from here. Yes, the Taiwanese love The Godfather as much as the rest of us.)

We came to Yunlin to check out a Mozart string quintet at Ensemble Hall (聲泊廳), a cultural hub for arts, music, independent film, and animation. Its tasteful, gorgeous design is modernist in style, putting in mind Scandinavian, Bauhaus, and Japanese influences. Tonight we’re bringing our two-year-old to a kid-friendly interactive opera tonight, and we’ll be back for a jazz concert in a few weeks.

“I reject the idea that the arts are only for the elite,” the…