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Exhibition on history of military villages in Hsinchu unveiled

“Hsinchu City has actually preserved a part of the culture of military dependents’ villages across the country.” — Lin Junq-tzer, Hsinchu Mayor

A special exhibition on the rich history of military dependents’ villages in Hsinchu City was unveiled over the weekend with a festival and guided tour of the sites of the city’s former military communities.

Military dependents’ villages, once scattered across the country, were housing projects that provided shelter for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) soldiers and their families who fled to Taiwan with the KMT government after it lost the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.

An interesting mixed “military dependents’ village culture” evolved as people from different provinces of China, speaking different dialects, having different customs and different cuisines, lived side-by-side for decades.

While most of these one-story-house communities have been replaced by high-rise apartment buildings, many people are striving to preserve their unique history.

This year, the Museum of Military Dependents’ Villages in Hsinchu City has organized a series of events to showcase the history and memories of those who once lived in these communities.

“Hsinchu City has actually preserved a part of the culture of military dependents’ village across the country because we had villages for the army, the air force and for logistics command combined,” Hsinchu Mayor Lin Junq-tzer (林政則) said at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

The exhibition showcased the lives of four high-ranking generals who lived in Hsinchu’s military dependents’ villages and stories of the battles in which they fought, Lin said.

The four generals, Chiang Tien-en (蔣天恩), Hsia Chi-chao (夏繼藻), Chang Chin-kun (張錦焜), and Shih Heng-feng (史恆豐) all participated in battles that halted China’s attempt to take Taiwan, and told their stories in person to the crowd.

Over the weekend, visitors were also able to sample the delights of “military dependents’ village cuisine” and joined a guided tour of former military community sites in the city yesterday.

The exhibition will be open to the public through Dec. 28.
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