This summer, a Taipei County committee resolved to register his village's buildings as historic sites. A final decision is still pending, awaiting, preservationists say, the Legislature's decision on the amendments to the Statute Governing Reconstruction of Old Military Dependents' Villages.
Elsewhere, villages in Tainan, Taoyuan and Matsu counties have already been designated as historic sites. Hsinchu recently opened a Military Dependents' Village Museum (新竹市眷村數位博物館),
and the Taipei city government has renovated part of Xinyi District's 44 South Village (四 四南村) in Taipei, a row of one-story structures once deemed an eyesore and slated for demolition.
Though Wang and others worry how they will fund maintenance and attract visitors, such efforts seem to be immune from ethnic politicking. The same is not true for the welfare of the old veterans who have moved into the new communities. They may need additional government support in the form of social services, but calls for such support could meet with opposition from pan-green legislators.
"The old residential [communities] were very close-knit," Academia Sinica's Chang explained. "Now the situation has changed. The old folks are moving into these modern apartment complexes, while their children have moved on, often to different cities. The elderly have special needs but have been cut off from their traditional support networks. They are not necessarily poor, but they probably need assistance to be connected with the outside world, whether it's for medical or other reasons."
"Given the political situation today, you cannot ask for additional social services for veterans, even though their wives are Taiwanese and their children are half and half. They are still regarded as Mainlanders," Chang said.
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