St. David's Day 2023

 Today’s Doodle celebrates St. David’s Day in Wales, or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant in Welsh. On this day in the year 589, St. David was canonized and became the patron saint of Wales. 

Each year on March 1st,  a national St. David’s Day Parade is held in the city of Cardiff, where schoolchildren and bands march in traditional Welsh costumes. They wear bright red gowns and dark tall hats and carry the Welsh flag.

The flag of Wales features a red dragon atop a green and white background. According to the legend of Dinas Emrys, a Celtic king’s castle repeatedly collapsed due to two dragons fighting in a lair below its foundation. Eventually, a red dragon prevailed and became a symbol of Welsh pride. Today, the flag decorates buildings and homes throughout the country. 

Today’s colourful Doodle was inspired by items found in Wales. The artwork was hand-crafted with cut acrylic glass inspired by traditional stained glass windows and prominently features Wales' National flower — the daffodil! 

Happy St. David’s Day Wales!

Celebrating Mickey Chen

Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Taiwan-based guest artist Dyin Li, celebrates Taiwanese filmmaker and activist Mickey Chen, who focused on telling stories from people that belonged to disenfranchised communities. On this day in 1999, her film Boys for Beauty became the first LGBTQ-themed documentary to be screened at a movie theater in Taiwan.

Chen, fascinated by cameras from a young age, started creating movies in college. At 30, she made her directorial debut with Not Simply a Wedding Banquet (1997), a documentary about the first gay couple to have a public wedding in Taipei. It explored the struggles that members of the LGBTQ+ community faced in Taiwan.

In 1999, Chen released Boys for Beauty, an eye-opening exposé that followed the lives of three gay teenagers from Taipei. The film took a bold stance against gender norms and showcased the societal pressures each subjects’ relatives endured. It was a box office success and a pivotal achievement for Taiwanese cinema.

Boys for Beauty won countless awards and film festival placements, most notably the Audience Award at the 2000 Taiwan International Documentary Festival. Chen gave an inspiring acceptance speech that praised the LGBTQ+ movement and invited several directors to join her on stage in an act of solidarity.

Chen wrote and directed many more documentaries such as Memorandum on Happiness (2003), Scars on Memory (2005), and Fragile in Love (2007). She also published Taipei Father, New York Mother in 2011, a book about family tragedies that occurred during her youth. Throughout her career, Chen documented significant moments of LGBTQ+ history in Taiwan and opened the eyes of the public to them and Taiwan’s progressive LGBTQ+ societal views are a result of trailblazers like her.