The demolishment of the residence of former Taipei mayor Henry Kao (高玉樹), a Japanese-style wooden structure built in 1920, showed the Taipei City Government’s ignorance of cultural and historical assets in the city, pan-green councilors said yesterday.
Kao, who served as Taipei mayor for 12 years and was the first mayor after the city was upgraded to a special municipality in 1954, was a prominent figure of the dangwai (黨外, outside the party) movement who served as an independent official under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
His residence, located on the intersection of Zhongshan S Road and Qingdao W Road, was torn down in April. The city government will turn the land and the nearby building that had housed the former Taipei City council into a pop music center with a budget of NT$4.5 billion (US$150 million).
PHOTO: HUANG CHUNG-JUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“The city government tore down a historical residence to profit private businesses as the pop music center will be operated by conglomerates. It has sacrificed a cultural and historical asset along with the collective memories of Taipei residents,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said yesterday after inspecting the site.
Independent Taipei City Councilor Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) called the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs a “killer of historical monuments,” saying it had torn down a series of historical infrastructures, including the Kao residence, the Shilin suspension bridge and the Beitou railway station.
Defending the city’s move, Lee Li-chu (李麗珠), a senior specialist at the department, said the city’s Cultural Asset Committee had examined the Kao residence in 2005 and did not list the residence as either a monument or a historical building because the wooden structure was too damaged to be repaired.
Chien and Chen challenged the department over its decision to list residences of KMT officials as monuments, including the residence of Yen Hsi-shan (閻錫山), a former premier under the KMT regime, and Qihai House, a residence of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) on Yangmingshan.
“Kao made more contributions than Yen did. The department favored KMT political figures and failed to respect Taiwanese historical memory with its decisions,” Chien said.
Lee said the department kept the documents and some furniture found in the Kao residence in storage and would display the items at the Museum of Taipei City, which the city government plans to build in Yuanshan in 2013.
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