This project is a VRML world which explores the story of the Chinese Goddess Matsu (also known as MaCo, Macho, Matzu, Mazoo, and Machu).

The development of the Matsu Interactive World has been funded by a grant from the Pacific Cultural Foundation.

Matsu, originally named Lin Mo Niang (silent girl) was born in 960 AD near Meizhou Bay in Fujien Province, China. She is revered by sea faring people in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Matsu has become much more than the patron saint of fishermen--she is one of the most venerated deities in the Chinese pantheon. Her birthday on the 3rd month, 23rd day of the Chinese calendar is celebrated in Taiwan's hundreds of Matsu temples. Because she is a powerful female deity and was supposedly visited by Kuan Yin herself, she is often associated with Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy. Matsu's face is generally black, and her face is shaded with a beaded veil.

This project began as an attempt to capture the idea of action in dreamspace. Matsu is said to have saved her father and brother while dreaming. To create her world as a virtual experience, then, seems fitting. The computer offers us all an avenue for "out of body" agency.

The piece consists of 6 scenes or worlds. Scene 5 is a multiuser offering area where visitors can offer virtual gifts, words, prayers, or stories to the goddess. Click on the images to project offerings into the environment, or type thoughts into the world through the text area.

The scenes are animated but users are free to navigate the worlds themselves.

This project began at the National Institute of the Arts, Peitou, Taiwan, in January 1999. Special thanks go to SuChu Hsu who was my wonderful host while visiting NIA. Images of Pi Ying Xi (skin puppets) are from the National Institute of the Art's Center for the Study of Traditional Arts. Some of the images which can be offered to Matsu in the offerings section are from photographer Sung Chih-Hsing. His work can be seen on the Academia Sinica website about Taiwanese culture.