Historic market finally levelled

After decades of negotiation that eventually ended in compromise, the Taipei City Government yesterday demolished the city's oldest public market.

Efforts to tear down Hsimen Market (西門市場) were met with little resistance, but many who had made their living there were dissatisfied with the compensation they have been offered.

The city is taking down part of the 104-year-old market in order to reconstruct the historic building -- a crucifix-shaped, one-story Japanese style building -- that will house 262 grocery stores.

The NT$600 million project, which is scheduled to be completed by next July, is part of an effort to revitalize the city's older communities.

One day before the demolition, Hsu Yang-lan (許楊蘭), accompanied by her granddaughter, came to the Red Theater (紅樓), next to the Hsimen Market, to fill out the claim form to get 10 percent more in compensation money from the Taipei City Government.

A check for NT$110,000 was all she had to show after a decade of protests with other vendors and negotiations with the city government.

Hsu, 88, originally from Sha-nghai, had sold noodle soup at the Hsimen Market when she and her late husband relocated to Hsimenting in 1949.

When her husband died some 20 years ago, Hsu closed down the store and has since been living alone at the shop.

However, a devastating fire last year forced her to move out of her home and rent a room at a nearby apartment complex.

"I've lost my home and don't have enough money to eat," said the gray-haired grandmother in a heavy Shanghai accent.

Compensation complaint

Her grand daughter, Lee Ya-ling (李亞玲), said that the compensation money was simply not enough. "All the shop owners and street vendors would like to have as much compensation as possible because, after all, they've been paying the city NT$4,000 every month for their operating licenses for decades," she said.

Like those shop owners whose stores were destroyed during last year's fire, Hsu has received NT$15,000 in compensation for the losses.

She is also entitled to NT$1.12 million since she does not intend to move back to the reconstructed market to continue with her business.

Vendors intending to move back, on the other hand, are entitled to NT$660,000 in compensation.

Rich history

The Hsimen Market in Hsimenting, Wanhua District, was built in 1896 during the Japanese colonial era and was the city's first public market.

The wooden building was reconstructed in 1908 and came to consist of two main buildings: a two-storey red-brick octagon-shaped structure and a one-storey red-brick crucifix-shaped building.

According to Huang Yung-chuan (黃永銓), founder of Hsimen's Red Theater Culture and Humanity Studio (西門紅樓文史工作室) and a third-generation florist at the Hsimen Market, the octagon-shaped building was used during the Japanese colonial era as a department store carrying Japanese specialties, antiques, books and flowers.

The crucifix-shaped building was used as a market for selling fresh groceries, dried food and daily items. Twenty-six more shops were built in 1928 to the east of the octagon-shaped building.

Two years after KMT forces retreated to Taiwan after loosing the civil war in China, the octagon-shaped building was renamed the "Taipei Book Market" (台北書場) in 1951 and the second floor of the building was used as a performance venue, while the first floor remained as a market.