Saving Qidong Street
Behind the three-month-old Taiwan Literature Base is a two-decades long effort to preserve and revitalize a cluster of Japanese-era dorms and an entire neighborhood
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
An old saw blade has sat on architect Sun Chi-jung’s (孫啟榕) office desk for over a decade.
He found it lodged in a cypress column of a Japanese-era dormitory in Taipei he was tasked to preserve, during the height of a struggle between preservationists and developers who were trying to destroy these houses that sat on prime real estate.
“This is to remind myself to never, never let something like this happen again,” Sun says emphatically.
Walking through Taipei’s colonial haunts
If you visit the newly-opened Taiwan Literature Base, don’t forget to explore the other surviving Japanese-style dormitories in the area for a splendid half-day walk
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
On my way to the newly opened Taiwan Literature Base (台灣文學基地), I began noticing the numerous similarly styled black-tile Japanese houses in the area.
Scattered across the alleys between Huashan 1914 Creative Park and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a few structures have been immaculately restored and opened to the public, but many more were crumbling behind construction fences or sitting solemnly behind concrete walls guarded by barbed wire and bottle shards.