Taiwan festival celebrates raunchy tradition ... with pole dancers

Dozens of pole dancers performed on ornate neon floats at a festival in Taipei on Saturday in celebration of one of the island’s more eyebrow raising cultural traditions.

The event sought to promote Taiwan’s famous dianzi huache or “electronic flower trucks”, travelling floats loaded with garish lights in the shape of everything from dragons to ferris wheels.

The trucks are used to take performers, usually scantily-clad women and musicians, to private and public events, including weddings and even funerals, and are particularly popular in smaller towns and rural areas.

The tradition, dating back to the 1970s, reflects Taiwan’s folk religion and culture, which is a unique mixture of the spiritual and the earthly.

For some, the trucks and their colourful performers are seen as the best way to create maximum fun and noise at important events.

But critics dismiss them as vulgar and tawdry.