Taiwan Today

The northern municipality of Taoyuan showcases its multicultural charms through festivals and heritage regeneration projects.

Historic neighborhoods in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City were awash with nostalgia last October as residents and visitors celebrated the 16th Taoyuan Military Community Cultural Festival. The event, held from Oct. 8-16, featured exhibitions, film screenings, food, guided tours and musical performances, all designed to reflect life within military dependents’ villages. Last year’s edition also had added meaning as it marked the launch of the Taoyuan City Government’s “iron triangle project,” which aims to restore and revitalize three military communities, namely Matsu New Village in Zhongli District, Sianguang 2nd Village in Guishan District and Taiwu Military Village in Daxi District.

“Saving the vanishing military dependents’ villages, their structures and traditions is an urgent task. These places are rich in cultural diversity, as their early residents came from different provinces of mainland China,” said Chang Hwei-lan (張惠蘭), an associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Tunghai University in central Taiwan’s Taichung City. “This combination of distinct dialects, cuisines and lifestyles is quite unique and deserving of preservation.” Chang, who is in charge of adaptive reuse projects in Matsu New Village, was herself born and raised in a military community in Zhongli.

Scores of housing facilities were built across the island beginning in the 1950s to accommodate military personnel and their dependents who relocated to Taiwan from mainland China with the Nationalist government in the late 1940s. Taoyuan was home to 86 such communities by the mid-1960s, the highest number of any administrative region in the nation. The majority of these areas have since been demolished or otherwise redeveloped, but some have been granted protected status.

In 2004, the Ministry of National Defense conferred conservation status on 13 such settlements. The three that make up the “iron triangle” are now being converted into a cultural and creative center, an immigration-themed museum and an arts center, respectively.

Chuang Hsiu-mei (莊秀美‬), director-general of the Taoyuan City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs, said her agency places a high priority on restoring and caring for heritage properties. “The preservation and revitalization of historic buildings and military villages allow visitors to better understand the everyday lives of the people who once resided there, while at the same time creating venues for many kinds of activities.”

The Guishan Military Dependents’ Village Museum is a prime example of a successful adaptive reuse project. The structure was originally built as an activity center in the military community in 1988. Besides displaying old furniture, photos, utensils and other artifacts related to life in such neighborhoods, today the facility hosts a wide range of activities including bazaars, concerts and handicraft courses and has become a popular tourist attraction.

Patchwork Society

Taoyuan is home to people of many cultural and ethnic backgrounds including Hakka and Holo, Taiwan’s largest ethnic group, as well as indigenous peoples. The city also has around 100,000 blue-collar foreign workers, mostly from Southeast Asia.

“We respect the cultures and traditions of different ethnic groups. Ethnic diversity is part of what gives Taoyuan its great cultural richness,” Chuang said. “Accordingly, we’ve implemented many initiatives to promote cross-cultural understanding and prosperity.”

There are specialized departments in the city government for Hakka and indigenous heritage conservation and promotion. In addition, the city stages annual festivals revolving around different ethnic groups such as the Taoyuan Hakka Cultural Festival and the Minnan Festival, which celebrates the culture of the Holo people, also known as Minnanese. The city government sponsors ceremonies and rituals performed by different indigenous tribes in the special municipality as well. These occasions are typically accompanied by exhibitions, folk performances and activities.

Chuang said her agency also collaborates with the Taoyuan City Government’s Departments of Labor and Social Welfare to organize events for workers from Southeast Asia. For example, they have recently staged separate exhibitions at the old Taoyuan railway station highlighting the art, attire, crafts, food, dance and music of Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

A Lasting Impact

Taoyuan’s efforts to foster a rich cultural environment extend beyond hosting activities like fairs and festivals. In order to provide year-round access to cultural resources, the municipal government operates a number of noteworthy facilities. The 33 branches of the Taoyuan Public Library, for instance, host classes, exhibitions and lectures covering a range of topics, besides providing reading and learning materials.

The Longgang Branch in Zhongli, Chuang said, has been hailed as the most beautiful library in Taiwan. Designed by architect Lu Chun-ting (盧俊廷), the green building is equipped with solar panels and a rainwater collection system while its exterior resembles a bookshelf. Wood was heavily utilized in the structure’s interior design, which is meant to evoke the sensation of reading under trees. Moreover, in a nod to the district’s cultural and linguistic diversity, the establishment provides publications from Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Another unique facility is the Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum. Known as “the museum without walls,” the premises comprise a cluster of historic structures built during the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945). Much of the complex is open to the public, though some sections are currently undergoing renovations. The ecomuseum highlights the area’s centuries-old woodcarving tradition by displaying artworks, hosting woodcraft workshops and providing audio-visual guides to help visitors learn about local culture and history.

Community Involvement

Community groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) play key roles in the successful promotion of arts and culture. Chuang’s agency has therefore sought to continually deepen cooperation with such entities.

The 2016 Taoyuan Land Art Festival, a cultural gala that ran from Sept. 9-25 in Bade and Xinwu districts, for example, leveraged the power of local communities to showcase the city’s diverse artistic environment. The large-scale exhibition featured 37 outdoor art installations, in addition to concerts, plays and neighborhood tours.

“Many of the art pieces on display were inspired by the city’s unique landscapes like ponds, beachfront areas and stone tidal weirs and were created jointly by artists and residents of the areas using locally available materials,” Chuang said. “The event turned out to be a huge success, attracting about 900,000 visitors.” With increasing community involvement, the festival is expected to become a signature event in Taoyuan’s thriving arts scene, she added.

The Taoyuan Culture Foundation was one of the co-organizers of the land art festival and planned a number of tour routes that guided participants around some of the city’s emblematic attractions including historic buildings, museums, old streets, temples and tourism factories. “We aim to promote Taoyuan’s heritage and cultural assets through in-depth guided tours,” said Phoebe Luo (羅碧霞), the foundation’s chief executive officer. “The unexpectedly warm response that we received from visitors to our planned activities demonstrated the city’s attractiveness.”

By mobilizing efforts at the community level and teaming up with NGOs, the Taoyuan City Government has succeeded in bringing the city’s cultural attractions into the limelight. “A distinctive feature of Taoyuan is its cultural diversity, which also contributes positively to the city’s economic, social and tourism development,” Chuang said. “By utilizing our diversity, we hope to enable visitors to experience the beauty and vitality of our city while providing our citizens with richer and more fulfilling lives.”

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw