Series of photographs taken in Tapei, capital city of the island of Taiwan whose independence from the Republic of China remains a highly political issue… This is a photographic variation from an hand-painted lanterns installation by Taiwanese children for the Chinese New Year on January 25, 2020. With a lot of creativity the children here represent the Rat on these lighted paper lanterns. This animal is indeed celebrated this year according to Chinese zodiac.

But this traditional “Spring Festival” was completely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic which began in China’s Hubei province in December 2019. The first officially case of covid-19 patient declared in Taiwan occurred on January 22, concerning a Taiwanese citizen who returned from a trip in Wuhan city, epicenter of the epidemic…

In this context, all the Zodiacal symbolism of the Metal Rat is tragically ironic because this animal is synonymous with wealth, strong social life, vitality and energetic, but the consequences of this coronavirus shocked the world to sanitary confinement and caused an unprecedented global financial crisis. The only positive aspect of this gloomy picture is that children develop few symptoms of the epidemic.

Discover my pictures of Chinese New Year lanterns 2020 taken in Taiwan.