The 1915 Tapani Incident, Taiwan’s largest anti-colonial uprising, is the literary scaffolding used in Tainan Requiem to ask the question: If gods truly existed and influenced human affairs, how might they have shaped the face of Taiwanese resistance to Japanese colonial rule? The story follows actual historical figure Û Tshing-Hong’s transformation from small-town intellectual to temple spirit medium, and spins a creative tale about how Û and anti-Japanese guerrilla leader Kang Tīng together inspired and then lost this popular insurrection against their island’s colonial rulers. Tainan Requiem breathes vivid new life into a footnote in history, and examines a people’s determination, and ultimate failure, to change their destiny.