Guard in Asia?

One of the things I miss is my flag. It's is so beautiful here at HKUST and the weather has been amazing so I have had the urge a few times to go play flag. Except I don't have a flag. (Insert sad face) And I was sure there wasn't colorguard in Asia. I mean, colorguard and marching band are totally American things, right?

At least that's what I thought before my trip to Taipei earlier this month.

It was my first real day in Taipei, Taiwan and our first stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, which was right down the street from our hostel. It was sprinkling, so we took our obligatory pictures outside and then headed for the museum where we learned about the life of Chiang Kai-Shek and his pretty sweet cars.

When the rain finally subsided, we made our way to the National Theater and the National Concert Hall and their vibrant colors and oriental design. To our surprise, the area around both buildings were taken up by different groups. On one side, there was a traditional dance group practicing. On the other side, a posse of Asian kids doing hip hop.

Then, in my peripheral vision, I saw a rifle spinning in the air.

No, I thought, it can't be.

But as I got closer, I realized that there was a troupe of high school students tossing rifle on the deck of the National Theater. My curiosity was piqued. Was this some military-like performing group or did I actually stumble on a colorguard in Taiwan?

I climbed up the stairs to the deck to investigate and sure enough, there were flags too.

I about died of happiness. My travel buddy honestly must of thought I was crazy the way I was blabbering on and on about how cool it was to find a colorguard in ASIA of ALL places!!

Here's the evidence (which I secretly took with my Bond skills):