I don't make it a point to visit museums when I am overseas unless it's interesting ones like the Ghost Museum in Penang or it was part of a tour package.
Despite having the word museum in its name, I knew that the real intent of Chung-hwa Pui-shiou Museum is the sale of charms in the image of Pixiu, a "Chinese mythical hybrid creature".
Nevertheless, visitation is a must since it's part of the mandatory shopping stop for our Taiwan tour package. Going down to the basement where skylight continued to illuminate the passage with natural lighting.
To reflect its so called legitimacy, you would find pictures of celebrities put up on the wall. Guess Singapore is a big market as I counted five Singapore celebrities. Well, as a graduate of marketing in poly, this is just a gimmick.
Instead of stone lions, let's have pixiu instead. I am not going to wax lyrical about the mythical creature and you can get a rough information on Wikipedia here.
I am no stranger to pixiu as I got acquainted to the creature a few times when I was in China, as part of tour packages. Said to ward off evil with the ability to attract wealth, I was persuaded to part away more than S$100 for a small charm.
You may also read the summary as above.
p.s. do note that pixiu is not qilin.
In Chinese mythology and feng shui, there are numerous auspicious and in this museum, you would gain some insights for lion, qilin, toad, dragon tortoise etc, although they were mainly about wealth, given how obsessed Chinese are with money!
After all the "information", we were brought into a room where the marketing pitch began! I was totally switched off and when it came to the "fortune telling" segment, no one in our group was keen to move to the tables. I think the person got irritated and rudely told us we can leave if we weren't interested. I treat that as a hint and immediately stood up, pulled my dad, and got out of the room! The rest followed suit.
Interested to learn more about pixiu and have your fortune taken so that you would know which charms to pick? You can definitely refer to the website as stated above, and make an appointment when you are in Taipei.
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Address
83號B1F, Chengde Rd, Section 3,
Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan
Map
As above.
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