Giant Puppet of General Fan Wujiu - Fire 9 (GIF)

This photo is of a giant puppet of General Fan who strides the streets protecting all from evil. He is one of the two deities featured in my book 'Voices from the Underworld' published in 2020 by Manchester University Press. Also known in Hokkien dialect (spoken in Fujian Province, China, and Taiwan) as Di Ya Pek, he is portrayed as short and stout. His robes and square hat are pitch black and, playing on sardonic humour, his hat bears the words tianxia taiping (天下太平) meaning 'Omnipresent Peace’ (the opposite of what he deals in when in the Underworld). His demon-summoning plaque is held aloft in his left hand, and in his right hand his soul-catching chain hangs down to the floor in preparation to strike. While an extremely popular deity in Singapore and Malaysia, he is rarely seen outside of performance troupes and City God temples in Taiwan.