I took this picture a while ago, and it has always made me smile because of the significance it bears in teaching what the tradition of Taiwan and much of East Asia is about. It is not the child with the phone, but the reflection of the grandfather hovering over the child. Even though I have been here for a short amount of time I know for sure that the ancestors of families live as reflections and ghosts over the homes of their relatives. This small child knows nothing of what is going to be asked of him later in his life when he has to spend gobs of money appeasing the upkeep of traditional ways. Honoring your parents in life is a regulation followed by several pagan and Christian sects, but Honor your parents so that they may be happy in the afterlife, I have a hard time justifying as mere tradition, but so tradition is passed of as religion? I know other large sects of spiritual thought that have been great at passing traditions upheld as concrete religious practice...
The grandfather in the background is counting on this young child, the first and only male child from his oldest sons marriage, to carry on the traditional practices long after he has passed away from walking on this earth. Already the hooks and chains, the rebar forms are being set, ready to be formed into a foundation for these pagan traditions. This first male child of a first male child has little to no chance in being converted when he is older unless there is a great shift in what Taiwanese consider to be their traditional values for life which in turn dictate the spiritualism of the country.