Returning to Hukou Old Street (湖口老街) in Hsinchu County for the first time in a decade and a half, I searched my brain for recollections of the former movie theater and came up with nothing.
Now a Hakka-themed restaurant called Hukou Style (湖口風情, 155 Hukou Old Street), it’s the tiniest standalone theater I’ve ever seen. The footprint of this building, which is less than 4m in height, isn’t much bigger than that of a typical townhouse.
The two little windows through which tickets were sold would be a strong clue as to its original function, even if they weren’t labeled
Between Jan. 1 and the end of this month, humanity will exhaust Mother Nature’s biocapacity for the entire year of 2022.
Biocapacity is the ability of ecosystems to regenerate resources and absorb waste. If they’re left alone, depleted fish stocks may recover, soil can regain its health and woodlands that have been thinned will regrow. Both oceans and forests absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.
But since around 1971, the world as a whole has been consuming ecosystem services and outputs faster than nature can regenerate them. Earth Overshoot Day exists to alert people to this alarming truth.
<strong>#MOVETHEDATE</strong>
Defining the day as the point
To the consternation of its biological father China the young nation of Taiwan seems to prefer its step-dad, Japan.
When the latter was forced out, a semi-modernized iteration of the former returned. And just as some people thrive as adults, despite an unstable childhood, Taiwan has become a democratic success. Unfortunately, the island’s biological father behaves like a parent who is no use, yet who continues to meddle.
A combination of rose-tinted retrospection and growing mutual respect has given many Taiwanese a highly positive attitude toward Japan. Physical reminders of the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule are treasured,
In the space of a few decades, Taiwan has changed from a place where characterful old buildings were thoughtlessly bulldozed to make space for wider roads or bigger homes, to a society much more likely to cherish physical reminders of the past.
The authorities have poured money into restoration and renovation work. According to a Nov. 10, 2020 post on Tainan City Government’s Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage Web site, in the first nine months of 2020, the Ministry of Culture’s (MOC) Bureau of Cultural Heritage approved 13 such projects in the southern city, setting a total budget of NT$281.6 million.