Historic site falls into ruin

If not for the wooden sign by the front door which lays out a brief history of the 125-year-old Yi Fang Chu (義芳居) house, most visitors would never know it is a municipal historic relic.

The family house of 78-year-old Chen Ping-liang (陳炳良) is tucked in narrow alleys between illegally constructed buildings in Taipei City's Ta-an District. The backyard used to look out onto lush hills, which have since been turned into a cemetery.

The water in the 10m deep well is no longer clear and sweet.

The gaps between the bricks on the wall were dug by Chen's ancestors to shoot at invaders. They are now sealed with cement.

For Chen, the designation of the house as a historic relic is the best way to prevent it from being torn down by nearby National Taiwan University. The school offered NT$4,000 per ping to buy the 800-ping (2,640m2) house in 1987.

Chen flatly turned down the offer and filed an application with the Taipei City Government requesting the house be designated as a historic relic.

"It's my home and holds the legacy of my ancestors. I'll never give it up to anyone," said Chen, who is still living in the house along with 20 of his relatives.

Although the city approved his request in 1989, the condition of the house seems to have gradually deteriorated.

"Look at the grass over there on the roof and the ugly power lines and electricity boxes on the wall, I have no idea what the cultural and civil affairs bureaus have been doing over the past 12 years," said KMT City Councilwoman Li-Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳), who led a group of reporters and TV cameramen to inspect the site yesterday morning.

"For the past two months, I've been trying to get Director Lung [Ying-tai (龍應台) of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs] to come down here, but she keeps telling me that she is busy," she said.

Li-keng said that the city has spent almost NT$10 million renovating the site, but it seems to have done little.

"See how poorly the job was done. It's a shame to see how the city treats a historic relic," she said.

The bureau spent NT$200,000 this year and NT$50,000 last year to dredge the well, fix the pumping motors and remove weeds from the grass.

Before the Bureau of Cultural Affairs was established in November 1999, the house was under the supervision of the city's Bureau of Civil Affairs.

In 1996, the Bureau of Civil Affairs spent NT$2.8 million to renovate the roof of the entrance hall and the right wing. It spent NT$100,000 in 1998 and NT$6 million in 1999 to fix the square, gutters and roof of the left wing.

Pointing to the deserted two-story, rectangular-shaped school dormitory sitting in front of the house, Li-Keng said school authorities should consider either removing or reconstructing the building.

"It's an incredibly ugly structure," she said. "It's hard to imagine that about 200 years ago there was a green prairie stretching to the horizon with a small river running through it."

Alex Yen (閻亞寧), a professor of architecture at the Chungkuo Institute of Technology and Commerce (中國技術學院), said that the management and maintenance of historic relics should not rest solely on the government.

"Although historic relics are public property, the owner of a private historic relic should team up with the government in the maintenance work," Yen said.

Boulin Hu (胡寶林), an architect and professor of interior design at the Chung Yuan Christian University (中原大學), said that the cultural affairs bureau should be more organized.