Logan Beck did not come to Taiwan looking for a goddess. He came for a person — he married into a Taiwanese family and settled in 彰化 (Changhua). It was his in-laws who first mentioned the temple processions, describing one near the Changhua Confucius Temple as being "on par with the American Fourth of July parade."
What hooked him was the sound. "What really left an impression was the sound of the firecrackers," he says. "I was absolutely captivated!" The smoke, the gongs, the press of bodies in matching vests — it was unlike anything in his American hometown.
Beck runs the YouTube channel "Logan X Taiwan," with roughly 509,000 subscribers. He is a one-person crew who has produced more than 400 videos over five years, and he talks about filming a procession the way an action director talks about a set piece — he cites Michael Bay. The pilgrimages became his subject because, as he puts it, he wanted the world to see "how special Taiwan is."