She said her management team gave her the confidence to take up a second project.
“It’s very difficult and very different to manage a heritage site compared to managing an ordinary exhibition hall,” she said in English. “It is for us a totally independent site. It’s not Taipei Story House the second, because it’s very unique in its history and its own character.”
It was the area’s history that made Chen decide to turn the mansion into a mini-museum that tells the history of Taipei City and introduces other historic sites around it.
As Futai Street was Taiwan’s first commercial street, she says, they wanted to use the building as a platform to introduce old Taipei.
While the Futai Street Mansion costs NT$2 million to NT$3 million to manage, Chen said the city government subsidizes electricity and water costs. The Taipei Story House receives no subsidies and costs more to maintain.
There have been 8,000 visitors since the mansion opened in April and Chen said she was surprised at public interest because the building was in a quiet part of town.
Admission has been free since April, but Chen said they are studying the possibility of charging a small fee or having visitors pay for special exhibitions, beginning later this month or next.
Ten young volunteers, aged between 10 and 11, are expected to begin work at the mansion this month, part of Chen’s effort to encourage public participation in cultural work.
Chen said she hoped to hold at least one major event each year to draw special attention to the mansion. As next year will mark the building’s 100th anniversary, Chen said they were planning a special exhibition and other activities.
Heritage sites are an important part of Taiwan, she said.
“It’s not only because they look funny, you know, but because they have such a historic meaning behind it,” she said.
“I think [the mansion] has more meaning than the 101 Building ... When this place was built in 1910, it was like the 101 Building ... 100 years later, it was totally forgotten,” Chen said.
“So I think in order to appreciate 101, you have to come back here and see how things started,” she said.
Lee Chian-lang (李乾朗), a professor of architecture at Chinese Culture University, said the North Gate was an important gateway to Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and the heart of Taipei City — along Hengyang Road — during the Qing Dynasty.
Private homes near the North Gate were scarce, while there were four public office buildings, which no longer exist, Chen said.
When the Japanese came in 1895, Lee Chiang-lang said, they decided to tear down Taipei’s city walls and four gates to make room for bigger roads and more open space. They didn’t see the walls as an effective deterrent to attacks.
While the walls and the West Gate were demolished, the remaining three gates were preserved because of a petition initiated by a Japanese librarian.
The Japanese opened shops on four main streets, Lee Chiang-lang said: Futai Street (now Yanping Road), Ronding (Hengyang Road), Bending (Chongqing S Road) and Jingding (Bo-ai Road).
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