The Ministry of National Defense (MND) will select up to 10 locations around the country to preserve the unique culture of military dependents’ villages, better known as juan cun (眷村).
The ministry will spend an initial NT$400 million (US$12.2 million) on construction at the 10 locations to help preserve what is left of the hundreds of villages that were created after the Nationalist Army fled to Taiwan from China following its defeat by the People’s Liberation Army in 1949.
Twenty-three of the villages are registered under city or county governments as juan cun relics or historic locations, said Lin Ching-fu (林景福), director of the ministry’s Military Dependents’ Service Department.
“The Ministry of National Defense has invited local governments to submit plans before March 9 on how to conserve the relics and related culture,” Lin said.
The ministry will then select up to 10 villages as candidates for the juan cun culture preservation project, he said.
Starting next month, the ministry will sponsor discussion workshops around the country to inform local governments and other authorities about the project, he said.
“Hopefully the juan cun culture preservation project will eventually create new tourism and cultural assets for the country,” Lin said.
When the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sought refuge on Taiwan after losing the war in 1949, many of its military personnel settled in quickly erected shanty villages. The compounds were like miniature versions of China, with people from different provinces living next-door to each other.
The juan cun have gradually disappeared as elderly veterans passed away and the shanties were demolished or replaced with modern housing. By 1982, fewer than 100,000 units in some 800 compounds were left.
Although the number of villages has decreased, the memories live on, especially the unique cuisine that mixed the traditions of various Chinese provinces with culinary innovations born of necessity in a time of scarcity, Lin said.
The Military Dependents’ Service Department archieves show that the largest juan cun compound in Taiwan was located on the border of Tainan City and Tainan County — a 20 hectare compound called Jingzhong III village, which housed 1,333 families.
Taoyuan County had the greatest number of juan cun compounds, more than 80.
The Qiao Ai New village in Dasi (大溪), Taoyuan County and Si Si Nan Cun in Taipei City’s Xinyi District (信義) are among the oldest.
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