Taiwan Today

Changhua County and its once glorious port of Lukang boast some of Taiwan’s richest cultural heritage resources.

Any visit to Changhua County in central Taiwan would be infinitely poorer if it did not include Lukang. This township, on the county’s northwestern coast, is Changhua’s cultural capital—a port noted for its crooked lanes, ancient incense-clouded temples, and practice of preserved traditions, from painted calligraphy scrolls to intricately fashioned religious artifacts rendered in metal and wood.

It was Lukang’s privileged access to sea trading routes that put it on the map. In the 17th century, the Dutch shipped deerskins to Japan from the harbor town. Some say that is how it got its name: Lukang in Chinese means “deer port.” Its proximity to Fujian province on the other side of the Taiwan Strait turned Lukang into a boomtown. Junks laden with rice, sugar and camphor headed out, while others heaped with foodstuffs, tobacco and textiles sailed in. Around the turn of the 18th century, Lukang was in its heyday. It was so prosperous that it rivaled the other two major trading centers at the time—Fucheng, the old name for Tainan in southern Taiwan, and Manka, the early settlement that grew into Taipei City.

Even though the silting of the port put an end to the good times by the 1840s, the affluence of the past has left its legacy. Today, the town has a wealth of tangible and intangible heritage. “Lukang is home to some of the earliest settlements built by immigrants from China and that relatively long history means that Changhua is culturally significant,” said Akira Chen (陳文彬), director of the county government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau (CAB).

In terms of the number of historic sites, Lukang claims 15—or 30 percent—of the county’s total of 51, yet it makes up less than 7 percent of its population. That is a lot of culture concentrated in one place.

Living Legacy

Lukang’s riches fueled a desire for the finer things in life, such as poetry, painting and craftsmanship. Masters came from China, answering the call for skilled artisans. Their traditions have been handed down generation by generation, Chen said. Today, Lukang boasts three artists out of only 12 nationally selected by the Ministry of Culture (MOC) as important preservers of traditional crafts: Shih Cheng-yang (施鎮洋) makes temple items and wooden furniture; Shih Chih-hui (施至輝) carves Buddhist and Taoist deities in wood; while Chen Wan-neng (陳萬能) sculpts in tin.

The written word is also well represented in Lukang with more than 10 private organizations dedicated to traditional literature, culture and art in the town. One of these is the Luchiang Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting Society (LPCPS), whose chairman is Lin Chun-chen (林俊臣). “Many of our ancestors were literati who were serious about educating their children in calligraphy and other traditional cultural practices. That tradition is being kept up today,” Lin said.

Founded in 1998, the LPCPS holds calligraphy exhibitions at Lukang’s historic sites, such as its famous 242-year-old Lungshan Temple. It also recently branched out into teaching these skills to members of the public. A beautifully restored granary, Fuxing Barn in neighboring Fuxing Township, is periodically transformed into a sea of Chinese characters, with sheets of calligraphy in different styles hanging in spaces that were once piled high with sacks of rice during the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945). The society holds calligraphy classes and exhibits students’ work at the barn on weekends and holidays. “People can practice and admire the art of calligraphy in this renovated historical location,” Lin said. “There’s no other place like it in Taiwan.”

Mollusks to Music

Lukang may well be Changhua’s crown jewel, but there is plenty to see and experience of historical beauty in the rest of the county that one would not be able to find anywhere else in Taiwan.

Take the Changhua Roundhouse, for example. Built in 1922 and located in Changhua City, it is the only one still in operation in Taiwan. The semicircle of train garages fans out around a giant central turntable, allowing the engines to be steered into numbered shelters. Vintage steam locomotives as well as modern trains are serviced and stored at the site.

Another unique attraction in Changhua is an ox-drawn cart trip to watch locals fish for oysters as they did in centuries past. This local government-designated folk custom is in Fangyuan Township in the southwest of the county. The mollusks are harvested in the intertidal zone—the stretch of shore that lies between high and low tides.

Changhua has a great classical music tradition too, reflected by its 23 troupes that play one of the two dominant traditional genres of beiguan and nanguan. The Lichun Club, based in Changhua City, has been around for 207 years, and is the oldest beiguan orchestra in Taiwan. Both opera styles have their historical roots in China. Nanguan is mellow in mood, while beiguan carries a more strident sound. The MOC-recognized orchestra is a fixture in the International Festival of Nanguan, Beiguan and Traditional Drama. Organized by the local government as its flagship cultural event in the county, it took place over three summer weekends this year at various venues including Changhua City’s Confucius Temple and Lukang’s Lungshan Temple.

As well as its musical traditions, the county salutes its literary greats. The Lai Ho Culture Foundation in Changhua City organizes daytrips to sites that commemorate celebrated writer Lai Ho (賴和). Sometimes called Taiwan’s Lu Xun (魯迅‬) after the famous author from China known for his social and political commentary, Lai, a medical doctor by trade, wrote poetry and fiction that expressed his sympathy for the underclass and resistance to Japanese rule. “These trips help you get a better understanding of the writer and Changhua’s more recent past,” said Chang Tsai-fang (張綵芳), the foundation’s executive secretary.

Repurposing History

While Changhua has worked hard to keep its rich cultural traditions alive, it has also recently begun to realize the value of thousands of old buildings that have languished for decades across the county.

Featuring elevated floors and sliding doors with papered panes, one cluster of 16 wooden houses from the Japanese colonial era are eerily beautiful but were forgotten for so long that today they linger half in ruin, courtyards choked with weeds, tree roots snaking through cracks in the stonework. Their historical value is now being recognized. Last year, teachers at Changhua City’s Nan Guo Elementary School started taking pupils on tours of the neighborhood centered on these 1920-era buildings. “We’re very familiar with this area, but we’ve never really appreciated it until now,” said one of the teachers, Chen Yu-yu (陳宥妤‬). The Changhua County Government converted two of the homes into a classroom and exhibition space for use by the students. The teachers are hoping to get them interested in protecting local cultural heritage while they are still young, Chen explained.

Restoration initiatives could not come soon enough. Many historical buildings have been demolished to make way for new construction. Lukang alone used to have nearly 3,000 structures over 100 years old, said Hsu Shu-chi (許書基), an urban planning expert, but about half of them have been torn down and replaced by modern buildings. “It’s a race against time, as not all of them are protected by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act and so they are at risk of being reduced to rubble.” Under the act, which was first passed in 1982, buildings, shrines, temples, tombs and other sites deemed to have historical and cultural value are awarded official protection, which could include the funding of preservation efforts.

In 2013, Hsu set up the Small Town Asset Management Co., which renovates, repurposes and manages old houses. Awareness about the importance of protecting heritage property has risen so much that owners are now approaching him for help, Hsu said. To date, the company has transformed 10 old homes in Lukang into venues like cafes, education centers and hostels, always ensuring that the restoration stays as faithful to the original as possible.

Under the local government-run Light Up Old House Project, launched two years ago, owners of homes in Changhua built before 1971 can apply for financial assistance for renovation work. So far, the project has helped restore 15 heritage properties including a clinic in Yuanlin City, which has been returned to how it looked in the 1960s, and a former guesthouse in Xizhou Township that now serves as a local activity center, CAB’s Chen said. “After all, an old house is more than just an empty building. It’s a starting point from which great memories can be made.”

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw